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Chinese City Trolls World With Sidewalk Cell Phone Lane

A Chinese city has created a sidewalk lane just for people who can't look away from their smartphones.

By Shirley Li
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A Chinese city has created a sidewalk lane just for people who can't look away from their smartphones.

Chongqing has established a lane for smartphone users to avoid running into others, as well as a lane banning smartphone use. According to property manager Nong Cheng of Meixin Group, the lane was inspired by National Geographic's Mind Over Masses show, which created similar lanes for a behavior experiment in July.

"There are lots of elderly people and children in our street, and walking with your cell phone may cause unnecessary collisions here," she told the Associated Press.

The path measures 50 meters (165 feet) long with two lanes. One prohibits cell phone use, and the other allows pedestrians to use them at their "own risk."

Nong said the pedestrians haven't been following the path's rules, instead whipping out their smartphones to snap pictures of the signs and the pavement. It's the reaction she had expected, as the lanes are meant to serve more as a reminder for people to look up from their handheld screens. "Those using their cell phones of course have not heeded the markings on the pavement," she told the AP. "They don't notice them."

National Geographic's experiment from this summer yielded similar reactions. Here's a clip, reported by D.C.'s local NBC affiliate:

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.