The Chinese city of Chongqing has introduced a dedicated dawdler lane for pedestrians who are too engrossed in their phones to be cognisant of their surroundings.
According to international reports, authorities in the city - part of the world's biggest smartphone market - have divided the pavement in two, with one lane reading "Cellphones - walk in this lane at your own risk" and the other designated for those whose eyes are not glued to their device.
The Independent yesterday reported that the lanes - which feature along a 50m stretch of one of the city's busy streets - were intended to be ironic and were created in a bid to alert people to the dangers of being distracted by smartphones while walking.
The report cites Nong Cheng, a marketing official of the group that manages the area in Chongqing's entertainment hub: "There are lots of elderly people and children in our street, and walking with your mobile phone may cause unnecessary collisions here."
While the dangers of texting while driving have been well evidenced and documented, the hazardous behaviour of texting and walking has also had its fair share of publicity. This YouTube clip of an ABC news insert shows how one US woman walked off a peer into Lake Michigan, while a youth on his phone did not notice a grizzly bear on the loose, just metres away - because of smartphone distraction.
According to the video, research about six years ago already revealed 1 000 people visited emergency rooms in 2008 due to cellphone distraction - double the number recorded the previous year, which was itself two times the amount recorded in 2006.
In 2012, Fort Lee - a city in the US state of New Jersey - passed a law that made it illegal to text and walk. According to ABC News, Fort Lee police warned they would begin issuing $85 jaywalking tickets to pedestrians who were caught texting and walking.
Reportedly, lawmakers in Arkansas and New York City were looking at introducing a similar law. This New York Times opinion piece reveals some of the frustration around navigating the city's busy streets amid the scores of "hollowed-out zombies" immersed in their electronic screens.
Share