New Study Finds Pedestrians Using Mobiles Can Become a Safety Concern for Drivers as Well as Themselves

A new study by the University of British Columbia finds that distracted walking is equally dangerous as distracted driving. The study was conducted at two busy intersections in Downtown Vancouver and it was revealed that smartphone addiction can affect our safety on the roads and streets. The distracted pedestrians who use their mobile phones on roads walk closer to vehicles than the ones who have no distractions. They are also less likely to change their walking directions because of oncoming traffic and overall tend to walk slower.

This is because distracted pedestrians have less awareness of their surroundings and navigational efficiency gets reduced. On the other hand, non distracted pedestrians have more awareness of their surroundings and have a high level of responsiveness to potential dangers.

This study used Multi-Agent Adversarial Inverse Reinforcement Learning (MA-AIRL) to analyze the interactions between pedestrians and vehicles. According to the results, the pedestrians who were distracted had a 46.5% decrease in their safety levels as compared to non distracted pedestrians. There was a 30.2% less distance between distracted pedestrians and vehicles as compared to non distracted pedestrians and vehicles. Distracted pedestrians also walked 65.7% slower.

The study also provided great insights about driver behavior and how pedestrians on the streets can also lead to potential risks and accidents. It also provided suggestions about urban planning and road safety measures. There should also be warnings for pedestrians who use their mobiles to combat this modern day hazard.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: Frequent Screen Use Impacts Language Skills in Children, Study Reveals
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World