Close to one in three pedestrians is sidetracked by a mobile device while crossing busy streets, according to a new study published in Injury Prevention.

Authors found that texting while walking across the street is the most potentially harmful and distracting action, therefore, they have recommended guidelines be taken similar to those who drive while drunk.

A team of researchers conducted a study to observe the behaviors of over 1000 pedestrians who traveled across 20 highly populated intersections during the summer of 2012 in the city of Seattle, Washington at several different intervals during a day.

The bystanders documented “distracting” activities that included:

  • text messaging
  • talking to other people
  • dealing with pets or children
  • talking on the phone
  • listening to music on a mobile device

Slightly more than half of the people observed were between the ages of 25 and 44. Most of the observations were made during rush-hour between 8 and 9 AM.

The researchers noticed that the majority of pedestrians were by themselves (80 percent), followed the lights (80 percent), and crossed at the correct spot (94 percent). Just one in four walkers obeyed the complete safety routine, including looking both ways before proceeding across the road.

Of the 1102 pedestrians, close to one in three (under 30 percent) was engaged in another activity while they crossed the street. About one in ten (11 percent) was listening to music; 7 percent were texting; 6 percent were talking on the phone.

The walkers who were distracted by other activities took much longer to cross the street, about 0.75 to 1.29 seconds longer. Listening to music caused walkers to speed up the time they took to cross, but they were not as likely to look both ways before crossing.

Pedestrians occupied with pets or children were nearly three times more likely not to look both ways. However, texting appeared to be the most potentially unsafe behavior.

People texting took close to two seconds (18 percent) longer to walk across the average intersection of three or four lanes than those who did not text. They also were four times more likely to disobey lights, cross at the middle of the intersection, or forget to look both ways.

The researchers indicate that pedestrian and vehicle crashes hurt 60,000 people and result in 4,000 fatalities annually in the USA. Similar to distracted driving, distracted walking can be just as dangerous. As cell phones become more popular, the risks are likely to grow.

The authors explain, “Individuals may feel they have ‘safer use’ than others, view commuting as ‘down time,’ or have compulsive behaviors around mobile device use.”

However, evidence establishes that distractions reduce awareness of surroundings.

The authors conclude, “Ultimately a shift in normative attitudes about pedestrian behaviour, similar to efforts around drunk-driving, will be important to limit the…risk of mobile device use.”

Previous research demonstrated that texting and cell phone use while driving has led to a rise in deaths in recent years. The combination of distracted drivers with distracted walkers has the potential to be even more deadly.

Written by Kelly Fitzgerald