City Installs Traffic Lights In Sidewalks For Smartphone Users (washingtonpost.com)

tlhIngan writes: It's finally happened -- the smartphone zombies are here. The German city of Augsburg installed traffic lights in the sidewalks so smartphone users don't have to look up. Apparently people are so addicted to their smartphones they can't be bothered to look up at traffic signals, so embedding them in the ground they don't have to. According to the Washington Post report, the city spokeswoman Stephanie Lermen thinks the money used to install the lights is well spent. A recent survey conducted in several European cities including Berlin, found that almost 20 percent of pedestrians were distracted by their smartphones. Of course, younger people are at higher risk as they're willing to risk their safety to look at their Facebook profiles or WhatsApp messages, the survey found. The problem may be even worse in the U.S: A survey by the University of Washington found that 1 in 3 Americans is busy texting or working on a smartphone at dangerous road crossings. City officials say installing the traffic lights is justified: The idea is to install such traffic lights came after a 15-year-old girl was killed by a tram. According to police reports, she was distracted by her smartphone as she crossed the tracks.

Comments

Isn't this a self-correcting problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

Won't this problem fix itself after a while?

Re:Isn't this a self-correcting problem?

[cayenne8]

Won't this problem fix itself after a while?

I was thinking the same thing....what a wonderful opportunity to see natural selection at work, in real time.

I think one of the reasons we're seeing so many inept and stupid people out there (and c'mon, you gotta admit you see them every day)...is that we've been protecting people from themselves WAAAAY too much, and have prevented nature from adding chlorine to the gene pool at appropriate times.

As the previous post alluded to...let nature take care of this situation itself.

Re:Isn't this a self-correcting problem?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> the collateral damage...caused...these idiots would be unfortunate

Yes, there's nothing more annoying than a two-hour train delay because there are shredded millennials all over the tracks again.

Fortunately, we can look forward to next week's SlashDot story: "New APP warns dumbasses they are currently crossing rails with train approaching." (It could use the phone's microphone to listen for LOUD FUCKING HORNS and DING DING DING DING DING.)

Re: Isn't this a self-correcting problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

#RetardHipstersThatFeelTheNeedToHashtagEverything

Re:Isn't this a self-correcting problem?

[epyT-R]

A few changes in the law to minimize driver culpability towards jaywalkers and other pedestrians who don't follow the rules (such as look both ways before they leap) might result in a spike of deaths by inattention, but afterwards, the rest should mend their ways. If not, I won't lose much sleep over these morons being killed off by their busyboxes. Thinning the herd keeps broken adaptation to a minimum. I'd also minimize the impact of broken financial systems that assign an individual's responsibility for stupidity to others.

Re:Isn't this a self-correcting problem?

[sdoca]

Assuming you're legitimately asking, despite your user name...

It's because indoor running tracks are generally short (~200m) and you are running on the curve for about 50% of it. If you run alot and always run the same way, you will build up a muscle imbalance.

The Downward Spiral:

[Hartree]

Isn't this subverting the natural course of evolution?

#zombielivesmatter

[known_coward_69]

because the phone zombies want to live too

Use an app instead

[bretts]

At this point, why rely on visual cues outside of the phone at all? If they're looking at the phone and have location enabled, on-screen notifications could tell them when the light is green. This avoids them having to notice the periphery at all, which is less likely if they're into a particularly intense sexting session or game of Farmville.

Re:Use an app instead

[rmdingler]

The problem with this sort of conditioning is that it desensitizes the user even further to the world around him.

When exceptions are made that do not penalize risky behavior, it encourages more risky behavior, perhaps in an environment without any protection.

Re:Good for them

[smooth wombat]

Because it's the government job to protect every person from every single possible calamity which may befall that person rather than encouraging people to take responsibility for themselves.

Essentially, you're admitting people are too stupid to take care of themselves so Big Brother has to do so.

Are these the kind of people we want to perpetuate our species? Ones who can't think or act for themselves?

Boom to the Burglary Business!!!

[Rogue974]

I grew up in a small framing community outside of Chicago and then went to college in Chicago. In one of my first few weeks there, a new friend who was from the city told me to stop looking down at the sidewalk. I asked why and he told me, that is how you get yourself mugged.

We talked about it and I realized, being from a land of no sidewalks, I always scan the ground to make sure of my footing so I don't trip on uneven ground. In the city, sidewalks are much more level and predictable so people don't have to look down. Also pickpockets and muggers look for easy targets that can't identify them. My friend told me, he was always taught, look up and look at the people around you. If you make eye contact with a mugger, there is a chance you will be able to ID him so they look for another target.

I am thinking, all these peoples looking down at their phone are an excellent target for being pick pocketed! I may have to change professions!

Horrible Idea, Horrible Suggestions

[wisnoskij]

While it is obvious that this "solution" solves nothing and protects no one, the solutions put forward here are equally useless. No one who does not look up when crossing the road will install an app to make street crossings easier (and that is ignoring the technical hurdle of figuring out which road the user is crossing at the intersection, which seems like an unsolvable problem to me). And if they are engrossed in their phone, they are equally as likely to miss any indicators, on the ground, in the sky, or anywhere in-between.

If you want to protect people from themselves, you need some sort of barrier or arm that physically blocks forward movement. Nothing else will register to someone who will miss a train barrelling towards them.

Situational Awareness

[Required Snark]

This is just the latest example of the erosion of situational awareness: the ability to monitor what is happening in the immediate environment. Smartphones, earbuds, and texting all displace attention from the "here and now" by redirecting mental focus to a non-local environment. Note that this is beyond what happens with reading a book or listening to music without headphones because of the immersive/interactive nature of the experience.

The loss of situational awareness makes people more susceptible to bad outcomes because the warning cues don't get through. Hence walking into traffic while looking at a screen. Obviously reading and walking can have the same result, but before the advent of current smartphones there were far fewer people who acted that irresponsibly. Also it was not social acceptable because most people realized the potential hazard. Now that smartphones are ubiquitous social norms have changed and people just don't care about what's going on around them.

A more direct way to say it is that people now act very stupidly in public. They inhabit a personal bubble and blindly assume that reality will never intrude. There will never be enough padding in the world to protect them from a lack of attention. To quote Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does".