
Chinese city gets 'smartphone zombie' walkway - timoth
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-44383449
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cataphract
Reminds me of the led strips on the ground at pedestrian crossings in the
Netherlands, added because of people not looking up at the light before
crossing: [https://dutchreview.com/news/dutch/smart-crossing-dutch-
inve...](https://dutchreview.com/news/dutch/smart-crossing-dutch-invention-
smart-phone-traffic-deaths/)

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contravariant
I wouldn't jump to any conclusions on that one yet. Both the statement that
smartphone use is increasing the number of accidents and that this would be
caused by people not looking at traffic lights are somewhat suspect.

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19870213
Especially since I routinely see people simply crossing the street
disregarding the traffic lights altogether regardless of smartphone use (here
in Eindhoven at least).

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weiming
Can paste 低头族专用通道 into Google Image search if you'd like to see more photos of
this one.

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B1FF_PSUVM
Thank you, made a clicky:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=%E4%BD%8E%E5%A4%B4%E6%97%8F%...](https://www.google.com/search?q=%E4%BD%8E%E5%A4%B4%E6%97%8F%E4%B8%93%E7%94%A8%E9%80%9A%E9%81%93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwinlsLy1sjbAhVBNxQKHcfbA10Q_AUICigB&biw=1567&bih=1078)

(translate.google.com for the phrase is also mildly amusing: "Lower family
dedicated channel")

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weiming
"低头族" is a phrase for smartphone addicts, can be translated to something like
"a group of people who have their heads down." (Unfortunately Google is
translating literally character-by-character instead.)

"Dedicated channel/passage" sounds about right though.

~~~
evincarofautumn
Speaking of literal translations, a direct English calque for that would be
something like “downheadfolk”, or maybe “head-downers”.

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joveian
“downheadfolk” sounds perfect, I hope people start using that :).

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noobermin
I actually think this is a great idea. Often in a crowd, I want to either stop
and not be run into by people, or I'm rushing and people often obstruct and I
have to dodge all of them to make on my way.

Having an actual place to chill out and walk slowly (cellphone or not) would
help immensely.

~~~
hesdomet
I wish they would do this in San Francisco. Or just teach people to step to
the curb when they aren't walking on the side"walk".

When I moved here from South Florida 10 years ago I noticed something very
different about public customs in SF. People are inconsiderate when it comes
to public spaces. In my hometown pedestrians will shoulder check you or pass
aggressively close if you take up the sidewalk. It's just fucking rude to hog
a public thoroughfare.

In SF people don't give a shit about others around them. They walk down a
sidewalk, slowly, 3-4 wide. They stop right in the middle of the sidewalk and
peck at their phone. They congregate across the sidewalk outside restaurants
and stores. It's almost like a contagious passive-aggressive behavior you pick
up after being here long enough.

I still pass people and invade their personal space if they're blocking the
sidewalk. It's an innate aggressive behavior that I have to indulge. Hopefully
some scooter-pedestrian collisions will fix this shitty behavior.

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bad_user
I don't live in the Bay Area, or in the US for that matter, but visited
multiple times and the reason for this behavior is that people in the Bay Area
are usually more relaxed than in other regions I've been to, like New York or
other big and crowded cities, like Bucharest where I live.

IMO it's also "fucking rude" to "shoulder check or pass aggressively close".

I should be able to walk at my own pace and I don't freaking care that you're
late somewhere. What can I say, leave earlier, take some other route or get a
scooter. Not my problem and whenever I get "shoulder checked" I do get
aggressive and I punched somebody once.

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mseebach
> I should be able to walk at my own pace

Yet, in doing so inconsiderately, you're denying others the right to do the
exact same thing.

> I do get aggressive and I punched somebody once.

Ah, so the problem _is_ you, thanks for confirming.

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seanmcdirmid
I believe Chongqing has these before Xi’an did. See
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/sep/15/chin...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/sep/15/china-
mobile-phone-lane-distracted-walking-pedestrians) from 2014.

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tree_of_item
> 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.

Uh, what? Cars come on to the...pavement? Do they mean the sidewalk? How is
this supposed to work?

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seanmcdirmid
This is how things are done in China. Cars often come onto the sidewalk
because all the parking spots on the street are taken.

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purple-again
Interesting, my guess as to why this doesn’t fly is the US is a mix of
aggressive tow truck companies that prowl every downtown looking for cars to
tow as they often get paid per car and the frequency of police that are all
too happy to slap a $100-$300 fine on your windshield to help meet their
monthly quota.

Either the reality of these two things or the successful perception of them is
what would keep me from just rolling up on a sidewalk because I couldn’t find
parking.

Does China not have fines and/or towing providing individual incentive to
behave?

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seanmcdirmid
China doesn’t really have rule of law like the west does. Unless they are
doing their once a year crackdown or it is a very important place, you won’t
get a ticket or get towed.

Some cities are worse than others. Shanghai has much more enforcement than a
lesser tier city like Beijing.

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hyperpallium
> _Phubbing_ is a term coined as part of a campaign by Macquarie Dictionary to
> describe the habit of snubbing someone in favour of a mobile phone.

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mrec
I've been using _phombie_ in my head for quite some time now.

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Freak_NL
I think 'smombie'¹ is gradually catching on.

1:
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smombie](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smombie)

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pns
While I find it interesting from a safety/convenience perspective, I also
can't help but see WALL-E becoming more and more real

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raverbashing
Yeah

How hard it is to take your eyes of your phone to be a human being and pay
attention to what matters?

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amelius
I want an app that warns me when I'm about to hit something/someone. Autopilot
for pedestrians.

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craftyguy
You've been give a free 'app' to do just that, your eyes and a brain.

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skypather
So what is the next? A dedicated lane for "texting drivers"? Come on. People.
Stop this nonsense.

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osrec
Eventually one of these walkways will have to cross a road. Do they have an
alarm or something that alerts the phone users to actually look up before they
cross?!

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nicodjimenez
This is totally hilarious and actually a pretty damn good idea!

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busterarm
New York needs these...

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xxxdarrenxxx
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VASywEuqFd8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VASywEuqFd8)

