Zombies are Here to Stay

A study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute shows that people using their phones behind the wheel double their chances of being involved in an accident. And if you have two phones, well, you can do the math. But did you know phones can also distract you on the street? A recent study determined an increase in pedestrian deaths partially due to distractions caused by smartphones (US Governors Highway Safety Association).

In fact, in China, they experimented with “cellphone sidewalk lanes” for people who use their phones while walking (I’m not making this up). I imagine these “lanes” were free from lampposts and other obstacles, but won’t these people bump into each other? Now it turns out the China experiment followed a similar U.S. experiment (which was actually performed as an April Fool’s joke). Practical jokes on April 1st must be a U.S. thing…

In any case, there will soon be an app for that (my prediction). Forget about autonomous cars solving this problem — that’s going to take a while. But because 100% of us have smartphones now, I imagine a free app coming to the rescue (or $1.99 if you want to avoid advertising). The app monitors all smartphones within 20 feet for pedestrians and 500 feet for automobiles. Speed and direction are both monitored and when a potential collision course is detected, alarms go off for both parties. A response by either party averts the potential collision and the pedestrian can buy a fresh cup of coffee (to replace the one he just dropped) — he may also need to change a few things…

Chet Skwarcan (traffic engineer, author, unique insights) with over 25 years of traffic engineering experience — online help available at TrafficEngineering.com/Services

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