Chinese City Sets Up "No Cell Phone" Pedestrian Lanes 46
An anonymous reader writes The Chinese city of Chongqing has created a smartphone sidewalk lane, offering a path for those too caught up in messaging and tweeting to watch where they're going. "There are lots of elderly people and children in our street, and walking with your cell phone may cause unnecessary collisions here," said Nong Cheng, a spokeswoman for the district's property management company. However, she clarified that the initiative was meant to be a satirical way to highlight the dangers of texting and walking.
Totalitarian government: (Score:4, Funny)
It finally pays off.
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It finally pays off.
You just ruined 3 jokes that popped in my head about this. Thanks for the lols. ;)
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I just wish all the posts that make sidewalks into rat mazes, are put into that one lane.
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Well they must have very nice wide sidewalks to be able to divide them up like that.
ChongQing (Score:1)
They've got the best traffic lights/timers/redlight camera system in place.
If everywhere did that, we'd stop hearing so much BS.
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Yea. All is costs is money.
Cha Ching!
The next major city project (Score:5, Insightful)
"...she clarified that the initiative was meant to be a satirical way to highlight the dangers of texting and walking."
Regardless of the original intent, if it is a device that allows human beings to ignore each other and stay tethered to social media with even greater efficiency, there will be no amount of money or time large enough to stand in the way of budgeting or building it.
What started out as a joke will become the next major city project.
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Replyng to undo faulty moderation
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LOL.
Our priorities are so fucked.
Of course. (Score:1)
may cause unnecessary collisions here
As opposed to the necessary ones.
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Oh personally I think collisions between people who don't look where they're walking and run into each other are highly necessary. Some people need to feel that they're acting stupidly.
Its about damn time!! (Score:1)
Send them into traffic (Score:2)
... seriously, sent the texting/chatting group into a lane that walks them right into traffic. That way, you address China's population problem, and you remove lots of idiots from the genepool (hopefully), or at least take out some of those who endanger the rest of us (I can only imagine how those types drive...). The one's who don't walk into traffic survive their Darwinism test.
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A better way is to remove all the current crosswalks from intersections and randomly move them between 0-10 feet down the road. That way a pedestrian needs to look before walking out. Should clean up the problem quite quickly from what I can tell.
Of course, that assumes you can get drivers to stop yeilding to pedestrians that are still so far from the road that they could trip and fall with both arms stretched above their head and still not touch the road with their fingertips.
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Heh I play dwarf fortress mostly, Clearly the way forward involves a lever and a pressure plate at each "crosswalk", and by "crosswalk", of course, I mean "retractable drawbridge over a spike pit". Pedestrian stops and pulls the lever first, no retraction.... step on pressure plate first and the bridge retracts.
Will likely need some redesign of the sewer system to help actuate the mechanism properly..... but its totally worth it.
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... seriously, sent the texting/chatting group into a lane that walks them right into traffic. That way, you address China's population problem, and you remove lots of idiots from the genepool (hopefully), or at least take out some of those who endanger the rest of us (I can only imagine how those types drive...). The one's who don't walk into traffic survive their Darwinism test.
If you look at the picture closely you will notice that they did make the sidewalk lane closer to traffic the one for the unobservant cell phone users. I do not think that was a mistake.
How about a smartphone car lane (Score:2)
let all the texting/tweeting drivers go into a special lane just for them.
Build concrete dividers between that and regular lanes. With titanium reinforcements.
Why stop there? (Score:2)
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A special lane on rail trails would be nice for rollerbladers, bordered with razor wire.
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No, but both groups can walk and shit at the same time.
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the cellphones lane ends with a hole in the ground. So that all those idiots who are too busy looking down at their phone to look forward, fall in it and die.
Ummm, they're looking down and will see the hole. I think a nice beam about nose high so it hits them in the head might be more effective at getting their heads up and some poetic justice.
looking down (Score:2)
So instead of looking down at their devices, they are looking down at the signs on the sidewalk; and taking photos of them. A questionable improvement.
Video of new lane in action (Score:2)
WTF is wrong with people? (Score:2)
I'm almost 40, so maybe that explains it, but WTF is with people who cannot put their devices down and just pay attention to what's going on around them?
What exactly so compelling that you can't take ten or fifteen minutes away from it to walk somewhere?
Waste of time (Score:2)
I haven't read all of the posts since the original story hit the front page, so I may be touching on something that's already been discussed, but ...
I don't understand how this is different from people just being unaware of their surroundings. I have been to many places in the last 20 years where people will just stop right in the middle of the sidewalk/thoroughfare/pathway to have a conversation or family dispute. The concept of stepping to the side out of the way so that the other 1000 people who aren'