Cities act to combat 'smartphone zombies'

With headphones on and mobile phone in hand just like many other American teenagers, Christina Morris-Ward, 15, was walking to school when she was hit by an oncoming car just as she was crossing a street near her Maryland high school.

She died that Halloween morning, two years ago.

"She was on her phone, she tweeted at 6.54am saying she wished she had put on a bigger jacket, and 7.03am was the time she was hit," Ms Gwen Ward, 41, Christina's mother, tells The Straits Times, ahead of the United Nations' World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, which was yesterday.

While comedic episodes of people walking towards bears or falling off piers while glued to their smartphones have made the rounds on social media, there is growing realisation that distracted walking can lead to tragedy.

The smartphone zombie is a hazard and this needs to be addressed through education, technology and perhaps even the law.

While people seem to think that walking and texting would not put them in harm's way, the statistics suggest otherwise.

In 2010, more than 1,500 pedestrians in the US were hurt while talking on their mobile phones, according to a study by Ohio State University, compared with some 256 incidents in 2005.

Co-author of the study Jack Nasar, a professor of city and regional planning, says he expects the number to continue to rise, especially with all the multiple distractions available on a smartphone such as checking social media.

"What happens when you walk and use your phone is that you are moving, but your head is somewhere else," he tells The Straits Times.

The extent to which one is distracted has even been quantified.

Stony Brook University conducted tests and found that talking on the phone while walking causes a 16 per cent reduction in speed, while texting and walking cuts speed by 33 per cent.

Furthermore, those who texted while walking often veered off course and increased their distance travelled by 13 per cent.

Despite all these studies, people often say "that's not me, I can drive and talk, or walk and talk on my phone", says Dr Nasar.

Yet, in the busy streets of Singapore, New York or London, it is unlikely that one could walk down the street without bumping into a fellow smartphone zombie.

Some cities have, of course, acknowledged the problem with a tongue-in-cheek response.

In London, for example, lamp posts along East London's Brick Lane were padded to prevent mobile phone addicts from hurting themselves. While the Twittersphere lit up with talk about expanding the Brick Lane project, it was really just a public relations stunt by a British directory assistance company and Living Streets, a charity dedicated to making streets more pedestrian friendly.

China's south-western city of Chongqing also came up with a playful solution - drawing lines on the pavement to create separate walking lanes for phone addicts and phone-free pedestrians.

While a marketing official for the city's entertainment zone told reporters in earnest that the move would protect elderly people and children from "unnecessary collisions", it has become more of a tourist attraction, with people posing with or without phones in the appropriate lanes.

Both the US and Taiwan have also tried a more legal approach to solving the problem.

In Rexburg, Idaho, anyone found texting while crossing a street is subject to a US$50 (S$65) fine. In Taiwan, news reports say that lawmakers are proposing a US$10 fine. The move follows a number of accidents involving pedestrians.

Last year, the US Department of Transport even announced a US$2 million federal grant to help cities combat distracted walking, which officials say may have contributed to a rise in pedestrian deaths - from 4,109 in 2009 to 4,432 in 2011, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Then, there are those who are using technology to solve this technological scourge.

There are apps such as Walk and Text, which essentially makes a phone "transparent" by replacing the regular background of an app with a live video image from the device's camera. This allows users to text while seeing what is behind the phone.

Dr Nasar says such apps might not be useful since people are still preoccupied with texting so their attention is not on the road.

"Maybe if there was an app that beeped as you stepped off a curb and made you look up, that might be helpful," he says.

At the end of the day, many activists feel the best solution still lies in education.

One international programme - Walk This Way - by non-profit organisation Safe Kids Worldwide and FedEx raises road safety awareness in 10 countries: Brazil, Canada, China, India, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.

Their work includes educating parents and children about risks on the road and helping schools develop safer school zones.

Research by Safe Kids Worldwide released last month showed that 40 per cent of teens have been hit or nearly hit by a car, bike or motorcycle while they were walking, and half say they were distracted by a mobile device while crossing the street.

Ms Ward, too, has given talks on pedestrian safety at public events and in schools. She says that whenever she sees people texting and walking, she stops to speak to them, telling them to put down the devices, take out ear plugs, look left, right and left when crossing the street, and to cross at designated crossings.

"I tell them my story, and I tell them 'if it can be avoided, let's try and make it happen'," she says.

simlinoi@sph.com.sg

Background story

Mishaps in Singapore

Incidents in Singapore involving injuries caused by walking and using the phone:

1. Two years ago, a man sprained his ankle badly when he fell into a drain near Upper Peirce Reservoir while replying to an SMS.

He was unable to stand or walk for a week.

2. Earlier this year, a woman in her 50s did not see a pothole in the pavement as she was playing a game on her mobile phone while walking.

She sprained her ankle when her whole foot slipped into the hole.

This article was first published on Nov 17, 2014.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.