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Long gone are the days when we would look both ways before crossing the street. The only direction most of us look is down， ceaselessly staring into the infinite depths of our screens. Distracted walking might not seem as dangerous as distracted driving， but it could be a contributing factor in the surge of pedestrian deaths and injuries seen over the last four years， according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.
But could the very technology that distracts us also alert us to danger？ In a study published in the journal Human Factors， a team of computer scientists tried to determine if sending warning signs to a distracted person’s phone would help them safely cross a busy roadway.
“Pedestrians stand at the edge of the road， one second from death， a lot of time，” says Joseph Kearney， study co-author and professor of computer science at the University of Iowa. “Cars are whizzing by， and one single， false step could be dangerous.”
Don’t worry： researchers didn’t push pedestrians into a stream of oncoming traffic to test their theory. Kearney works at the Hank Virtual Environments Lab， which utilizes what’s called “virtual environment technology” to study how folks cross busy streets. Wearing virtual reality glasses and head mounted displays， preoccupied participants had to navigate a 3D neighborhood while texting. If they were about to make a dangerous road crossing， a loud warning signal sounded from their phone.
Some of the results were as expected—pedestrians heeded warnings and ultimately made safer crossings. But what Kearney didn’t anticipate was the participants’ reactions to the warning signals once they had already started crossing the road.
“The kicker was， once they made the overt motion to move， they almost never stopped and returned to the curb， even when they got a warning，” he says. “We also found they looked at the road much less when they have this alerting system. The concern is what we call ‘outsourcing our cognition’—you allow the phone to make the decision for you.”
It seems counter-intuitive to keep walking if there’s a speeding car coming at you， and in the study， it was. More than a third of the 300 test crossings resulted in a collision， which Kearney says was a much higher rate than other studies conducted in the simulator. In the real world， that translates to a lot of pedestrian pancakes. And even though participants knew they weren’t in any actual danger， Kearney says the collisions were still a shock， with many of them trying to leap out of the way of virtual vehicles. Kearney says the instinct to keep crossing instead of turning back may have to do with what’s called response inhibition， which in very basic terms suggests that it’s difficult to stop a motor function once it starts. Even if the alternate action—like aborting an unsafe crossing—could save your life， Kearney says very few participants instinctually did so.
For those who insist on walking and staring into the soul of your phone at the same time， don’t fret too much—in the grand scheme of things， pedestrian deaths are pretty rare.
Of course， we can’t blame all of this on smartphones; adverse weather， distracted drivers， and increases in numbers of people travelling by foot are just a few of many factors contributing to the rise. We don’t have exact numbers on how many people are killed each year as a result of distracted walking. But that’s not to say it isn’t being taken seriously.
Last year， Honolulu became the first city in the U.S. to ban distracted walking. If you’re caught looking at your phone while crossing the street， you could be fined up to $99. Montclair， CA quickly followed suit， doling out fines for even wearing headphones in a crosswalk. There’s a 100-foot-long phone lane at an amusement park in Chongqing， China， to prevent people from smashing into each other while walking and smartphoning—to be fair， it is pretty hard to snarf a corndog and Snapchat at the same time.
What Kearney’s studying—known as V2P （vehicle-to-pedestrian） technology—already exists between cars. V2V （vehicle-to-vehicle） enables cars to communicate wirelessly to detect danger and help drivers avoid accidents. There’s already a Samsung app designed for New Yorkers called “Look Up，” which prompts distracted pedestrians to take notice when they reach an intersection. Kearney says the cellphone technology they’ve been testing is ready for use， it’s just a matter of whether smartphone manufacturers deem it worthwhile to implement.
Neil Gaffney with the Federal Highway Administration says with pedestrians and cyclists accounting for an increasing proportion of traffic fatalities， V2P technology will “eventually be a viable solution to improve safety.” The national highway administration estimates that these new systems have the potential to prevent almost half of pedestrian crashes.
“Pedestrian detection systems can be implemented in vehicles， infrastructure， or with pedestrians themselves to provide warnings，” Gaffney says. “These include both in-vehicle systems such as blind spot and forward collision warnings， and handheld devices that can provide warnings for pedestrians. These are young， but promising applications for this developing technology.” In the meantime， let’s all look back on some long lost advice： remember to look both ways before crossing the street！
过马路前要左顾右盼的日子早已过去了。我们大多数人看的唯一方向是朝下，无休无止地盯着那深不可测的屏幕。美国州长公路安全协会称，走路分心看似没有驾驶分心那么危险，但它可能是过去四年造成行人伤亡数量激增的一个因素。
但是，这种分散我们注意力的技术是否也能警示危险呢？在一篇发表在《人为因素》期刊上的研究报告中，一支计算机科学家团队试图确定向分心行人的手机发送预警信号能否帮他们安全穿过繁忙的行车道。
“行人站在路边，生死只差一秒，这算是很长时间了。”该研究报告的合著者、艾奥瓦大学计算机科学教授约瑟夫·克尼说，“汽车呼啸而过，错一步就很危险。”
别担心：研究人员并未将行人推向迎面而来的滚滚车流中以验证他们的理论。克尼在汉克虚拟环境实验室工作，该实验室利用所谓的“虚拟环境技术”来研究人们如何穿过繁忙的街道。参与者头戴虚拟现实眼镜和头显，被要求一边全神贯注地发短信，一边在3D街区中穿行。一旦他们即将穿越危险的道路，手机就会发出响亮的预警信号。
一些实验结果在意料之中——行人注意到预警，最终以更安全的方式穿过马路。而一旦参与者已经开始过马路，他们对预警信号的反应却出乎克尼的预料。
“令人意外的是，一旦步伐明顯迈出，即使收到预警，他们基本也不会停下脚步并回到路边。”他说，“我们还发现，安装预警系统后，他们看马路的次数少了许多。我们把这种令人担心的情况称为‘认知外包’，即让手机替你做决定。”
一辆疾驰的汽车朝你驶来，而你还继续往前走，这似乎令人匪夷所思，但在这项研究中，情况就是这么不可思议。在300个测试对象中，超过三分之一的人过马路时发生了撞车，克尼说，这个比例远远高于用模拟器来进行的其他研究。在现实生活中，这意味着很多行人会被轧成肉饼。克尼说，即使参与者知道没有任何实际危险，撞车仍让他们惊骇，许多参与者都试图跳出虚拟车辆的车道。
克尼说，被警告后继续过马路而不是返回这一本能，可能与所谓的反应抑制机制有关。简单来说，这个机制指一旦运动功能开启，就很难停止。克尼说，即使其他行动——比如停止危险穿越马路——可以挽救性命，也很少有参与者本能地照做。
对于那些坚持一边走路一边专心致志盯着手机的人来说，不必过于担心——从宏观角度来看，行人死亡相当罕见。
当然，我们不能把这一切都归咎于智能手机;在导致行人死亡人数增加的众多因素中，恶劣的天气、分心的司机以及步行人数的增加也只是其中几个。每年有多少人因走路分心而亡，我们没有确切数字。但这并不意味着该问题没有受到重视。
去年，檀香山成为美国第一个禁止走路分心的城市。如果过马路时被发现在看手机，你可能被处以最高99美元的罚款。加州蒙特克莱迅速效仿，甚至对戴耳机走在人行横道上的人也处以罚款。在中国重庆的一个游乐园里，有一条100英尺长的手机专用道，以防止人们走路时看手机撞到对方——平心而论，一边大吃玉米热狗，一边浏览色拉布，如此一心二用的确很难。
克尼正在研究的技术被称为“车辆—行人（V2P）”，该技术已被应用于汽车之间。“车辆—车辆（V2V）”技术可使汽车间进行无线通信，以监测危险并帮助司机规避事故。三星已经为纽约人设计了一款名为“抬头看”的应用程序，当分心的行人到达十字路口，它会提醒他们注意路况。克尼表示，他们一直在测试的手机技术已经可以投入使用，关键在于智能手机制造商是否认为该技术值得应用。
联邦公路局的尼尔·加夫尼表示，随着行人和骑行者在交通死亡中所占比例越来越高，V2P技术“最终将成为一个提高道路安全的可行解决方案”。国家公路局估计，这些新系统有能力防止近一半的行人撞车事故发生。
“行人监测系统可以安装在车辆、基础设施或者行人自己身上以提供预警。”加夫尼说，“这些监测系统既包括车载系统，如盲点和前向碰撞预警，也包括可以为行人提供预警的手持设备。对于这项正在发展的技术来说，尽管这些系统还不成熟，但其应用前景广阔。”
与此同时，让我们回忆一下那条被遗忘已久的箴言：人过马路前，记得看两边！
（译者单位：江西师范大学外国语学院）
English Quotes
1. Whoever neglects learning in his youth loses the past and is dead for the future.
2. Books are the ladder in stepping up human civilization.
3. Not ignorance， but the ignorance of ignorance， is the death of knowledge.
4. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
5. Learning without thinking is cheating; thinking without learning is lazy.
6. What matters is not the idea a man holds， but the depth at which he holds it.
7. Genius does what it must， and talent does what it can.
8. Genius is the ability to put into effect what is in your mind.
But could the very technology that distracts us also alert us to danger？ In a study published in the journal Human Factors， a team of computer scientists tried to determine if sending warning signs to a distracted person’s phone would help them safely cross a busy roadway.
“Pedestrians stand at the edge of the road， one second from death， a lot of time，” says Joseph Kearney， study co-author and professor of computer science at the University of Iowa. “Cars are whizzing by， and one single， false step could be dangerous.”
Don’t worry： researchers didn’t push pedestrians into a stream of oncoming traffic to test their theory. Kearney works at the Hank Virtual Environments Lab， which utilizes what’s called “virtual environment technology” to study how folks cross busy streets. Wearing virtual reality glasses and head mounted displays， preoccupied participants had to navigate a 3D neighborhood while texting. If they were about to make a dangerous road crossing， a loud warning signal sounded from their phone.
Some of the results were as expected—pedestrians heeded warnings and ultimately made safer crossings. But what Kearney didn’t anticipate was the participants’ reactions to the warning signals once they had already started crossing the road.
“The kicker was， once they made the overt motion to move， they almost never stopped and returned to the curb， even when they got a warning，” he says. “We also found they looked at the road much less when they have this alerting system. The concern is what we call ‘outsourcing our cognition’—you allow the phone to make the decision for you.”
It seems counter-intuitive to keep walking if there’s a speeding car coming at you， and in the study， it was. More than a third of the 300 test crossings resulted in a collision， which Kearney says was a much higher rate than other studies conducted in the simulator. In the real world， that translates to a lot of pedestrian pancakes. And even though participants knew they weren’t in any actual danger， Kearney says the collisions were still a shock， with many of them trying to leap out of the way of virtual vehicles. Kearney says the instinct to keep crossing instead of turning back may have to do with what’s called response inhibition， which in very basic terms suggests that it’s difficult to stop a motor function once it starts. Even if the alternate action—like aborting an unsafe crossing—could save your life， Kearney says very few participants instinctually did so.
For those who insist on walking and staring into the soul of your phone at the same time， don’t fret too much—in the grand scheme of things， pedestrian deaths are pretty rare.
Of course， we can’t blame all of this on smartphones; adverse weather， distracted drivers， and increases in numbers of people travelling by foot are just a few of many factors contributing to the rise. We don’t have exact numbers on how many people are killed each year as a result of distracted walking. But that’s not to say it isn’t being taken seriously.
Last year， Honolulu became the first city in the U.S. to ban distracted walking. If you’re caught looking at your phone while crossing the street， you could be fined up to $99. Montclair， CA quickly followed suit， doling out fines for even wearing headphones in a crosswalk. There’s a 100-foot-long phone lane at an amusement park in Chongqing， China， to prevent people from smashing into each other while walking and smartphoning—to be fair， it is pretty hard to snarf a corndog and Snapchat at the same time.
What Kearney’s studying—known as V2P （vehicle-to-pedestrian） technology—already exists between cars. V2V （vehicle-to-vehicle） enables cars to communicate wirelessly to detect danger and help drivers avoid accidents. There’s already a Samsung app designed for New Yorkers called “Look Up，” which prompts distracted pedestrians to take notice when they reach an intersection. Kearney says the cellphone technology they’ve been testing is ready for use， it’s just a matter of whether smartphone manufacturers deem it worthwhile to implement.
Neil Gaffney with the Federal Highway Administration says with pedestrians and cyclists accounting for an increasing proportion of traffic fatalities， V2P technology will “eventually be a viable solution to improve safety.” The national highway administration estimates that these new systems have the potential to prevent almost half of pedestrian crashes.
“Pedestrian detection systems can be implemented in vehicles， infrastructure， or with pedestrians themselves to provide warnings，” Gaffney says. “These include both in-vehicle systems such as blind spot and forward collision warnings， and handheld devices that can provide warnings for pedestrians. These are young， but promising applications for this developing technology.” In the meantime， let’s all look back on some long lost advice： remember to look both ways before crossing the street！
过马路前要左顾右盼的日子早已过去了。我们大多数人看的唯一方向是朝下，无休无止地盯着那深不可测的屏幕。美国州长公路安全协会称，走路分心看似没有驾驶分心那么危险，但它可能是过去四年造成行人伤亡数量激增的一个因素。
但是，这种分散我们注意力的技术是否也能警示危险呢？在一篇发表在《人为因素》期刊上的研究报告中，一支计算机科学家团队试图确定向分心行人的手机发送预警信号能否帮他们安全穿过繁忙的行车道。
“行人站在路边，生死只差一秒，这算是很长时间了。”该研究报告的合著者、艾奥瓦大学计算机科学教授约瑟夫·克尼说，“汽车呼啸而过，错一步就很危险。”
别担心：研究人员并未将行人推向迎面而来的滚滚车流中以验证他们的理论。克尼在汉克虚拟环境实验室工作，该实验室利用所谓的“虚拟环境技术”来研究人们如何穿过繁忙的街道。参与者头戴虚拟现实眼镜和头显，被要求一边全神贯注地发短信，一边在3D街区中穿行。一旦他们即将穿越危险的道路，手机就会发出响亮的预警信号。
一些实验结果在意料之中——行人注意到预警，最终以更安全的方式穿过马路。而一旦参与者已经开始过马路，他们对预警信号的反应却出乎克尼的预料。
“令人意外的是，一旦步伐明顯迈出，即使收到预警，他们基本也不会停下脚步并回到路边。”他说，“我们还发现，安装预警系统后，他们看马路的次数少了许多。我们把这种令人担心的情况称为‘认知外包’，即让手机替你做决定。”
一辆疾驰的汽车朝你驶来，而你还继续往前走，这似乎令人匪夷所思，但在这项研究中，情况就是这么不可思议。在300个测试对象中，超过三分之一的人过马路时发生了撞车，克尼说，这个比例远远高于用模拟器来进行的其他研究。在现实生活中，这意味着很多行人会被轧成肉饼。克尼说，即使参与者知道没有任何实际危险，撞车仍让他们惊骇，许多参与者都试图跳出虚拟车辆的车道。
克尼说，被警告后继续过马路而不是返回这一本能，可能与所谓的反应抑制机制有关。简单来说，这个机制指一旦运动功能开启，就很难停止。克尼说，即使其他行动——比如停止危险穿越马路——可以挽救性命，也很少有参与者本能地照做。
对于那些坚持一边走路一边专心致志盯着手机的人来说，不必过于担心——从宏观角度来看，行人死亡相当罕见。
当然，我们不能把这一切都归咎于智能手机;在导致行人死亡人数增加的众多因素中，恶劣的天气、分心的司机以及步行人数的增加也只是其中几个。每年有多少人因走路分心而亡，我们没有确切数字。但这并不意味着该问题没有受到重视。
去年，檀香山成为美国第一个禁止走路分心的城市。如果过马路时被发现在看手机，你可能被处以最高99美元的罚款。加州蒙特克莱迅速效仿，甚至对戴耳机走在人行横道上的人也处以罚款。在中国重庆的一个游乐园里，有一条100英尺长的手机专用道，以防止人们走路时看手机撞到对方——平心而论，一边大吃玉米热狗，一边浏览色拉布，如此一心二用的确很难。
克尼正在研究的技术被称为“车辆—行人（V2P）”，该技术已被应用于汽车之间。“车辆—车辆（V2V）”技术可使汽车间进行无线通信，以监测危险并帮助司机规避事故。三星已经为纽约人设计了一款名为“抬头看”的应用程序，当分心的行人到达十字路口，它会提醒他们注意路况。克尼表示，他们一直在测试的手机技术已经可以投入使用，关键在于智能手机制造商是否认为该技术值得应用。
联邦公路局的尼尔·加夫尼表示，随着行人和骑行者在交通死亡中所占比例越来越高，V2P技术“最终将成为一个提高道路安全的可行解决方案”。国家公路局估计，这些新系统有能力防止近一半的行人撞车事故发生。
“行人监测系统可以安装在车辆、基础设施或者行人自己身上以提供预警。”加夫尼说，“这些监测系统既包括车载系统，如盲点和前向碰撞预警，也包括可以为行人提供预警的手持设备。对于这项正在发展的技术来说，尽管这些系统还不成熟，但其应用前景广阔。”
与此同时，让我们回忆一下那条被遗忘已久的箴言：人过马路前，记得看两边！
（译者单位：江西师范大学外国语学院）
English Quotes
1. Whoever neglects learning in his youth loses the past and is dead for the future.
2. Books are the ladder in stepping up human civilization.
3. Not ignorance， but the ignorance of ignorance， is the death of knowledge.
4. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
5. Learning without thinking is cheating; thinking without learning is lazy.
6. What matters is not the idea a man holds， but the depth at which he holds it.
7. Genius does what it must， and talent does what it can.
8. Genius is the ability to put into effect what is in your mind.