China creates special smartphone lanes for pedestrians to prevent them from bumping into each other

Mobiles are increasingly emerging a serious hazard as users tend to neglect their physical safety and that of others when they take or make calls while walking on the streets. China has recently launched an initiative to address the issue - the smartphone lane.  

A footpath divided into two lanes for phone users and non-phone users had come up in  Chongqing city, with the lanes marked with painted arrows and images of phones.

Signs are displayed prominently in English and Chinese that proclaim:  ''First mobile phone sidewalks in China.'' It also has a diagram mapping out the path.

According to The New York Times' China reporter Chris Buckley, most people still seemed to walk freely amidst the traffic on the road.

The idea was tried out in Washington DC last month, where a path was divided into lanes marked ''No cellphone'' on the left, and ''Cellphones: Walk in this lane at your own risk'' on the right, with arrows indicating the way.

This came as part of a National Geographic stunt for a TV series to be aired, called Mind Over Masses. The series ''uses what we know about human behaviour'' to develop ''interactive solutions to everyday problems.''

According to the property manager in Chongqing city, though, the marking exercise was intended to be ironic - to remind people that it was dangerous to tweet while walking the street, AP reported.

AP quoted Nong Cheng, the marketing official with Meixin Group, which manages the area in the city's entertainment zone as saying, there were lots of elderly people and children in their street, and walking with cellphone might cause unnecessary collisions with them.

Meixin had marked a 50-metre stretch of pavement with two lanes: one that prohibited cellphone use next to one that allowed pedestrians to use them - at their "own risk."

She added pedestrians were not taking the new lanes seriously, with many snapping pictures of the signs and sidewalk.