There’s nothing like stepping outside to breathe the fresh air as you go for a walk along the street. Sometimes you see people, your neighbours your friends out too and it gives you a nice chance to say hello and catch up. But what isn’t lovely is when you’re walking along and a 20-something or teenager glued to their phone has no clue where they’re walking and you spend about 20 metres sizing them up to make sure you don’t collide – all while they’re oblivious staring at the phone.
To solve this 21st century problem, a technology firm in Antwerp thought they’d have some fun and actually made specific texting and walking lanes on the ground. That way, you simply had to make sure you stayed in the lines and could walk wherever you wanted – phone in hand, head faced down!
Antwerp now has ‘text lanes’ for people glued to mobile phones http://t.co/LoQhILojX9 pic.twitter.com/YBqlNf8L81
— The Independent (@Independent) June 14, 2015
Texting lanes solve walking bumps http://t.co/FjRzqU83D2 pic.twitter.com/GK4YPK5Fxu
— news.com.au (@newscomauHQ) June 15, 2015
However, the townspeople loved it so much that they actually request it be made permanent!
“Everyone ‘textwalks,’” an Mlab (the organisation with marketing geniuses behind the stunt) spokesman told Yahoo News.
“You probably walk through the streets while texting or sending Whatsapp messages to your friends and don’t really pay attention to your surroundings — only to whatever is happening on your screen.
“This causes collisions with poles or other pedestrians.
“You could, unknowingly, even be endangering your own life while you ‘textwalk’ when you cross the street without looking up”.
So we want to know, would you like to see text-walker lanes come into your city or town? Do you think it’s a valuable upgrade to our city streets or simply a very bad sign of the times? Share your thoughts in the comments below…