Maybe look where you’re going

In one of those scientific studies where the outcome seems preordained, researchers at the University of New South Wales recently established that pedestrians gazing at their phones are more likely to have an accident. ‘On any day it seems as many as 80 per cent of people may be head down and texting. I wondered: is this safe?’ said senior author Matthew Brodie. Er, no it isn’t, the study duly concluded. A Japanese mobile phone firm also looked into this in 2014 and found that our field of vision is reduced by 95 per cent when we stare at a phone, so little wonder that we’re blundering into lampposts, hedges and each other.

Another study, in 2016, noted that we tend to make ‘exaggerated movements’ to compensate for that limited vision, which would be hilarious if it wasn’t so dangerous. In 2020, a British Medical Journal analysis linked smartphones to compromised pedestrian safety, with ‘higher rates of “near misses” and failure to look left and right before crossing a road due to listening to music or talking on the phone.’

In 2012, the Mayor’s Office in Philadelphia sent out a press release announcing the introduction of special lanes painted on to the pavement for mobile phone users. It was 1 April, and it was a joke, but within a few years it had become reality in some urban areas in Manchester, Chongqing and Antwerp. One US politician, Pamela Lampitt, tried to draw attention to the issue by proposing a punishment. ‘An individual crossing the road distracted by their smartphone presents just as much danger as someone jaywalking and should be held, at minimum, to the same penalty,’ she said, suggesting a $50 fine, with a 15-day stretch in prison for repeat offenders. Did it raise awareness? A little. Did it give walking texters pause for thought? No.