Texting while walking? Utah University marks special 'texting lane' to engage students

It is not uncommon to see young people glued to their mobile phones while walking, without even looking up. And if you have ever been stuck behind them on the streets, you will realise that text-walking reduces them to a snail’s crawl.

Texting and walking may not be as serious as talking and driving, but it can still hold up traffic.

So the Utah Valley University (UVU) in US came up with an innovative solution to avoid a text-traffic. They have marked out a special area on the staircase leading up to the university’s new Student and Wellness Center called ’texting lane.'

The staircase is divided into three parts — ‘walk’, ‘run’ and ’text’ and as the categories suggest, the last is for the slow-pokes who can amble up the stairs without disrupting the people walking or running around.

This new staircase division was the brainchild of Matt Bambrough, the creative director at Utah Valley University (UVU).  “You have 18-24 year olds walking down the hall with smartphones, you’re almost bound to run into someone somewhere; it’s something we’re dealing with in this day and age,” Bambrough told Fusion

However, he added that the reason for the ’texting lane’ is not to actually create a safe-zone for texting students but to make them look up from their phones. “But (preventing collisions) isn’t the reason we did it — we did it to engage the students. It’s meant to be there for people to look at and enjoy," he added.

In his own words, the staircase is more for the creative thought behind than for actually making a difference.“This design was intended to be visual first and functional second,” Bambrough told The Huffington Post .  

While we cannot say how effective this lane will be in deterring text-walking, it’s surely an interesting way to tell students it’s okay to take a break from their phones sometimes.