Looking at a Screen Instead of Both Ways

Looking at a Screen, Instead of Both Ways - NYTimes.com: " . . . Researchers in Seattle last summer watched more than 1,100 people crossing at busy intersections. Their study, published online last week in Injury Prevention, reports that almost a third were listening to music, texting or talking on a cellphone. Compared with undistracted pedestrians, people who were listening to music crossed an average of a half-second quicker. But those talking on a hand-held phone spent three-quarters of a second longer in the street, and people with hands-free devices were even slower: one and one-third seconds behind those with no distractions. Worst of all were the texters. They took almost two seconds longer to get across and were about four times as likely as undistracted pedestrians to engage in at least one unsafe behavior — disobeying the lights, crossing midblock or failing to look both ways. . . . "


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