Don’t text and walk: China creates first no-cellphone sidewalk

Many places around the world have lanes for bicycles, others for motorcycles, but there’s a place in mainland China that boasts a different type of lane altogether: one for phone addicts glued to their screen. The Chinese city of Chongqing has created a smartphone sidewalk lane, seemingly offering a path for those too engrossed in messaging and tweeting to watch where they’re going. But the property manager says it’s intended to be ironic - to remind people that it’s dangerous to tweet while walking the street.

There are lots of elderly people and children in our street, and walking with your cellphone may cause unnecessary collisions here.

Nong Cheng, Meixin Group, which manages the area in the city’s entertainment zone

Meixin has marked a 50-metre stretch of pavement with two lanes: one that prohibits cellphone use next to one that allows pedestrians to use them - at their “own risk.” Nong said the idea came from a similar stretch of pavement in Washington D.C. created by National Geographic Television in July as part of a behaviour experiment. She said that pedestrians were not taking the new lanes seriously, but that many were snapping pictures of the signs and sidewalk.

Odd News