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'Go Slow' Smartphone Walking Lane For Dawdlers(Sky News (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Smartphone users glued to their screens can now shuffle along in unison after a Chinese city gave them their own designated walking lane. Tired of people clogging up the pavement at a beauty spot, authorities in Chongqing City divided the pavement into two sections with the warning: "Cell phones - walk in this lane at your own risk." Nong Cheng, a spokesman for the company which manages the area, said: "There are lots of elderly people and children in our street, and walking with your cellphone may cause unnecessary collisions here." However, it turns out the 50m-long lane could be making things worse. Tourists are now stopping to take snaps of the unique divide, reports the People's Daily newspaper, which also notes regular incursions into the wrong lane. China is the world's biggest smartphone market, with an estimated 700 million devices at the end of last year. The Chongqing scheme was inspired by a behaviour experiment carried out in Washington DC in July. That trial also fell flat, with most phone users too engrossed in texting or updating their Facebook status to notice the pavement markings below their feet. Apart from frustrating other pedestrians, the growth in smartphone 'zombies' is a real safety issue. One in three people are distracted by mobile devices at high risk road crossings, according to a 2012 University of Washington study, and are less likely to look both ways or obey traffic signals. "Distracted walking" may also be to blame for a recent increase in pedestrian deaths, according to the US Department of Transportation. In Taiwan, fines have been proposed for people who use their phones while crossing the street after a woman was killed using her device earlier this year. (c) Sky News 2014 |