That’s a question the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to answer as part of an ongoing project examining distractions to drivers caused by mobile gadgets.
NHTSA said the goal of the study is to determine if electronic device use by pedestrians and drivers significantly impacts pedestrian safety and will include ”naturalistic observations” in several cities to quantify portable electronic use by pedestrians and drivers when interacting.
Based on my naturalistic observations, NHTSA might want to extend this study to pedestrian-on-pedestrian collisions caused by hordes of folks who spend most of their time walking peering at the screen of their iThing, rather than watching where they are going.
Maybe they’re navigating with the built-in GPS.
Bob Brewin
Bob Brewin joined Government Executive in April 2007, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience as a journalist focusing on defense issues and technology. Bob covers the world of defense and information technology for Nextgov, and is the author of the “What’s Brewin” blog.
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