The News Minute | September 16, 2014 | 08:59 am IST

It is serious and it is 100 feet wide. It has people walking on it, but not necessarily speaking to each other rather, they are deeply engrossed in texting or speaking to people without looking up. 

The Chinese city of Chongqing has introduced what is billed as the first mobile phone sidewalk for people who are texting the walking or literally talking the walk. According to The Guardian, the Chongqing phone lane is “almost a direct copy of one that was painted on to 18th Street, Washington DC in July.” 

The Washington version was created as an experiment to study crowd behavior which suggests that then Chinese effort could be less than a serious attempt by authorities to formalize these lanes. How will walking-texters avoid hitting a lamppost is the first question? Or walking into dog poop, assuming their roads are like Indian roads.