You know mobile devices have hit a certain critical mass when universities start adding walking lanes designed to stop texters from accidentally colliding with non-texters.
That’s exactly what happened to a staircase at Utah Valley University’s Student Life and Wellness Centre, with one staircase being home to dividing lines splitting students into “walking,” “running” and “texting” lanes.
“When you have 18 to 24-year-olds walking on campus glued to their smartphones, you’re almost bound to run into someone somewhere; it’s the nature of the world we live in,” UVU’s creative director Matt Bambrough told the Daily Mail newspaper.
While Bambrough admits that the concepts was intended as a joke “rather than a real attempt to direct traffic flow,” we actually think it’s a pretty nifty idea — although we’d personally prefer “Apple,” “Android” and “Other” lanes.
This isn’t the first time something similar has been tried. Last year, a place called Foreigner Street in Chongqing, China installed a similar lane marked with a warning reading, “CELLPHONES: WALK IN THIS LANE AT YOUR OWN RISK.”
Source: Daily Mail
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “University adds dedicated texting lane for students on the move”
what about people coming in the opposite direction?
this is beyond stupid
These are clearly the upstairs.
no
yea only kidding……
who cares?
Best case, two people stupid enough to be focused on texting while going up or down stairs hit each other and hopefully fall down and hurt themselves enough to stop doing it.
Why does it go from slow to fast to slower? Do you have to cross the running lane every time you want to text a person?