Chinese City Gets 'Smartphone Zombie' Walkway

An anonymous reader shares a report: A city in northern China has introduced a special pedestrian lane on one of its roads, exclusively for slow-walking smartphone users, it's reported. According to the Shaanxi Online News, the pavement along the Yanta Road in Xi'an has now got itself a special lane for "phubbers" -- people who stare at their phones and ignore everything else around them. The lane is painted red, green and blue, and is 80cm wide and 100m long. Pictures of smartphones along the route distinguish it from an ordinary pedestrian lane. Shaanxi Online says that a large shopping mall, which looks onto the street, had been pushing to have the lane for a month. It says that cars often come onto the pavement, which is a busy channel for pedestrians who might not be paying attention to their surroundings. News website The Paper interviewed locals, who welcomed the introduction of the lane. Wei Xiaowei said it was the first time he had seen such a thing and said he thought it was "pretty good." "Everybody walking along here thinks that it's very safe; at the side of the road, there are cars, and the vehicles also come onto here, and sometimes only just avoid you."

What a time

[TJHook3r]

...to be alive! Sometimes I wonder if I'm living in a slightly rubbish cyberpunk novel!

Re:

[dunkelfalke]

This is the cyberpunk we deserve.

I give it 30 seconds

[LynnwoodRooster]

before it's clogged with electric bikes and scooters, like a lot of sidewalks in China...

Re:I give it 30 seconds

[AmiMoJo]

Depends where it is... Electric scooters and rental bikes are everywhere in Fuzhou. I saw a guy riding one, with a woman on the back, and phone in hand. His horn must have been broken because he was using a horn app on his phone to shoo people out of his way as he rode through a shopping centre.

In Guangzhou they are rare. It's all cars and the pedestrian areas are safe except for phone zombies.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

So all cars should be banned?

Re:

[Oswald McWeany]

Anyone who uses a horn to shoo people out of the way should be shot. Or hung. Any form of public execution really.

The car horn is probably the worst invention of all time. It's supposed to be used in emergencies- but what it's really used for is a way to make your car say expletives. I suspect the car horn has killed more people (by startling them and making them crash) than it has saved lives.

Can't we do away with all the pretense in this modern day? Instead of a car horn, can't we have a button that plays a recording of "f you asshole" out of a loud speaker?

It does what the current car horn does in expressing opi

Re:

[The Grim Reefer]

The car horn is probably the worst invention of all time. It's supposed to be used in emergencies-

No it's not. It's meant to get someones attention. I don't recall which state, but within the last couple decades they still had it on the books that you were required to honk your horn when approaching a Y in the road to make sure everyone else knew you were approaching.

but what it's really used for is a way to make your car say expletives. I suspect the car horn has killed more people (by startling them and making them crash) than it has saved lives.

Ten years ago I probably would have agreed with you. But in the last 2 or so years the only thing I've used my horn for has been to get the person ahead of me to look up from their phone to move because the light turned green.

In my case

Re:

[LordWabbit2]

I live in a country where there are laws against using your phone while driving (even if you are stationary) and I live in a city in that country that has passed by-laws which give them the right to confiscate your phone until you pay the fine. Still happens all the time of course, but I have lived in most major cities here and it does not happen as often where I am now. Personally my social circle is clearly a lot smaller than most people, I hate having WhatsApp etc. on my phone, but work uses it, and the

Re:

[The Grim Reefer]

The car horn is probably the worst invention of all time. It's supposed to be used in emergencies-

This is somewhat state dependent. I just did some looking. In Virginia, New Jersey, and Rhode Island legally you are supposed to honk your horn before passing someone.

Re:

[Oswald McWeany]

The car horn is probably the worst invention of all time. It's supposed to be used in emergencies-

This is somewhat state dependent. I just did some looking. In Virginia, New Jersey, and Rhode Island legally you are supposed to honk your horn before passing someone.

That must make for a very musical interstate.

Re:

[Unhappy Windows User]

Well hung.

Re:

[LynnwoodRooster]

Down here on Huanshi East Road and Luhu - right in the heart of Guangzhou - there are plenty of scooters and bikes on the sidewalks. At least that's how it's been these last 7 days...

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

I was only there for a few days, maybe I avoided the bad areas.

Re:

[LynnwoodRooster]

Ahhh... I lived in Shanghai for 6 years, and for the last 6 I've been over here (like now) for 4-5 months each year, 2-4 weeks at a time! Oh well... It's really gotten much more crowded as the economy in GZ has grown even faster (and Dongguan as well, that's a huge boomtown), so it's gotten worse in terms of use of sidewalks and such. This is right in the center of downtown.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

I thought that's where we went, down town by the British embassy and north of that around some big shopping centres and the Tesla showroom. Then along by the river too. I'm not very familiar with the place.

let darwin work, ffs

[Anonymous Coward]

if people can't be bothered to look where they're going and instead are staring at a screen, let nature take its course.

Re: let darwin work, ffs

[orlanz]

Would you say the same if cars just rode up on sidewalks in the US. There was a time in history when this used to happen and we blamed the pedestrians; but we didn't really have curbs then.

I think that's the real problem for them. They let drivers get up on the side and blame the pedestrians for not paying attention. I guess this special lane is supposed to set the expectation that the walkers won't be blamed.

Headline

[SCVonSteroids]

... and it leads to a meat grinder.

Re:

[SciCom Luke]

We should be so lucky

Re:

[bobby]

I was just about to post: It leads to a building, and Soylent Green comes out the other end.

Re:

[jbmartin6]

That meat grinder is only turned on every other day, so they have a good sporting chance.

Reference, I think?

[DontBeAMoran]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Re:

[Oswald McWeany]

Soylent green is 'Smartphone Zombies'... IT'S PEOPLE!

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

Tell me about it. Last time I was there, I saw a perpetual motion machine that worked.

Re:

[Hognoxious]

I suspect the article is using the British meaning of pavement, which is the exact opposite of yours.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

4. Never oppose a PRC officer.

Most of the hate is undeserved

[Iamthecheese]

I used to read books while walking down the street. (on sidewalks) My attention and peripheral vision was more than sufficient that I never stepped over a curb or walked in front of traffic, but I still had people shout at me out of cars. Because I never jaywalked I know the real problem they had wasn't that I was unsafe but that I seemed unsafe. I think a lot of people are that way with people on cell phones. He's on a cell phone, is he going to walk in front of me? And they project their anxiety onto the

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

>I'm responsible for my behavior. If I actually behave unsafely that's on me. Otherwise stop trying to regulate me.

Until that one time where you step onto the road and a driver can't stop in time not to hit you. Or actually does manage to slam on the brakes fast enough, only to get rear-ended by the guy behind him. Now the driver has to prove to the insurance company that you stepped out onto the road unexpectedly. Good luck with that.

Re:

[Iamthecheese]

So if I have anxiety, and I assume someone is about to hit me so I dive into the ditch is that their fault?

Helmet fires

[sjbe]

My attention and peripheral vision was more than sufficient that I never stepped over a curb or walked in front of traffic, but I still had people shout at me out of cars.

What about the people around you who had to needlessly maneuver around you? I don't buy the argument that you were able to adequately pay attention to what was going on around you at all times.

I think a lot of people are that way with people on cell phones. He's on a cell phone, is he going to walk in front of me? And they project their anxiety onto the other party where it does not belong. I'm responsible for my behavior. If I actually behave unsafely that's on me. Otherwise stop trying to regulate me.

Your argument might have merit if people were actually good at paying attention to multiple things at once. It's called task saturation [wikipedia.org] though I like the term pilots use which is "helmet fire". It is a FACT that people cannot talk on a phone and give their full attention to other tasks. It sounds simple enough but it actually task saturates most people and they start making mistakes unintentionally. The reason it is dangerous to talk on a cell phone and drive is that your brain physically cannot cope with doing both at the same time. Same thing applies to pedestrians. They literally cannot task switch between talking and navigating fast enough.

I like this idea...

[wardrich86]

It keeps the slowest traffic off to the side, and if you trip into somebody walking slowly because they're on their phone, they've got no excuse.

Welcome to Zombie Alley

[lolococo]

In soviet China, zombies phone you!

Stupid

[SuperDre]

Instead of promoting this, add extra poles so people who aren't watching where they're going walk into them.. People should stop using the smartphone so much out in the public streets, have seen too many accidents already because people walked through red-lights while being busy with their smartphones (and I don't give a rat's ass if they die because of it, just don't be such a moron).