Zhejiang writes out tickets to phubbers crossing streets

HANGZHOU - The city of Wenzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province has given pedestrian phubbers 124 tickets and 391 verbal warnings as of Thursday noon.

The first ticket for the pedestrian phubbers, issued on Jan 14, became viral online with more than 300 million views, according to the Wenzhou traffic police.

On Jan 1, the city's regulation on promoting civilized behavior came into effect. Pedestrians looking down at their mobile phone screens when crossing the road will be given verbal warnings or be fined 10 yuan ($1.5) if their behavior affects the passage of other vehicles or pedestrians, according to the regulation.

The city surveyed more than 300,000 residents, and using mobile phones while crossing the street is among the top eight uncivilized behaviors most disliked by residents.

Online comments on the issue remain mixed as some question the feasibility of the rules and how to define whether such behaviors affect traffic.

"We don't define the violation based on how long they look down at their phones but whether the behavior affects personal safety and traffic," said Xu Zhihong, with the local traffic police.