What Happened?
A sidewalk in Chongqing, China, has been labeled specifically for pedestrians engaged with their mobile devices. The mobile device sidewalks are similar to bike lanes with markings to separate regular pedestrians from those on their devices.
Goal
While bike lanes are intended to make navigating a city via bicycles easier and safer, the mobile device-specific sidewalk lanes were created to be ironic. The 50-meter stretch of sidewalk with dedicated to mobile device users is intended to draw attention to the haphazard behaviors of those walking while on their devices.
When using their mobile devices, people may wander the sidewalks with their heads down, not paying attention to their surroundings. This can be dangerous for the distracted walkers, other pedestrians and drivers nearby. The mobile device-specific sidewalks try to separate these walkers from pedestrians paying attention so as to avoid unnecessary collisions. The sidewalk’s sign reads “walk in this lane at your own risk.”
However, pedestrians enthralled in their mobile device activity often passed by the niche sidewalk markings, while others stopped to take pictures of the ironic signage using their mobile devices.
Original Experiment
The city of Chongqing was not the first place to test mobile device sidewalks. A few months ago, the National Geographic Channel divided a portion of a Washington, D.C., sidewalk into two sections for mobile phone users and everyone else. Reactions to the sidewalk markings were filmed for an upcoming Mind Over Masses television show, the Associated Press reported.
The goal of the social experiment was to test different theories of how to solve everyday problems with interactive solutions. Because people using their mobile devices while walking down the street are typically not looking at signs or sidewalk markings, the experiment revealed few pedestrians noticed the signs and properly merged into the mobile device lane.
What’s the Big Deal?
While both examples of mobile device-specific sidewalks failed to completely separate distracted walkers from other pedestrians, they did draw attention to a public problem: a growing number of accidents attributed to mobile device usage. While the stats on unnecessary sidewalk collisions are not known, here is what we know about mobile device usage while driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
- 5 seconds is the average time a driver’s eyes are off the road while texting
- Engaging with a mobile device while driving increases the risk of getting into a crash by 3 times
- Text messaging makes a crash 23 times more likely
- Dialing a phone makes a crash 2.8 times more likely
- Talking or listening on the phone makes a crash 1.3 times more likely
- Reaching for a mobile device makes a crash 1.4 times more likely
- 10 percent of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash
- 1 in 5 drivers admit to surfing the web while driving
- More than 25 percent of all auto collisions involved mobile devices last year
As a result:
- 39 states and D.C. prohibit drivers from texting
- 32 states and D.C. make it illegal for novice drivers to use mobile devices while driving
- Commercial vehicle drivers are prohibited from texting while driving
- Federal employees cannot text while driving government vehicles
Furthermore, many cities are developing public awareness campaigns in partnerships with local high schools to educate young drivers on the dangers of mobile device use in the car.
Walk Safely
Gov1 has reported on a variety of sidewalk projects that make walkways safer, as well as workforce policies to reduce public employee injuries.