Utah Valley University's Brilliant Response to People Who Walk and Text
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We all know driving and texting is dangerous, but so is walking and texting, especially when stairs are involved.
That's part of the reason Matt Bambrough, the creative director at Utah Valley University, decided to create a texting lane on a campus staircase as a way to poke fun at the school's “culture of walking and texting.”
Speaking to Fusion, Bambrough explained that the texting, walking, and running lanes were created for the amusement of students and not necessarily to improve UVU's walking situation.
“You have 18-24 year olds walking down the hall with smartphones, you’re almost bound to run into someone somewhere; it’s something we’re dealing with in this day and age,” Bambrough told Fusion. “But [preventing collisions] isn’t the reason we did it—we did it to engage the students. It’s meant to be there for people to look at and enjoy.”
While one UVU student said slow-moving texters can really get annoying, Robbie Poffenberger, an assistant news editor at the UVU Review, told Fusion that most texting and walking disasters he witnesses only involve one human.
“They walk into barriers—chairs on the side of the hallway, or railings,” Poffenberger said. “I’m sure they’re fairly embarrassed.”
Here are some funny Twitter responses to UVU's walk-run-text lanes:
Two years ago, a video went viral of a woman falling into a mall water fountain as a result of walking and texting.
Last year, AwesomenessTV released a powerful PSA about why it's important not to text and drive.
AT&T also has an It Can Wait campaign to discourage the same thing:
