People just won't stop texting while walking. Even though it might be hilarious for those of us watching, it's just a bad idea. You might walk into a lake. You might be sent to jail in New Jersey. You might walk off the edge of a cliff in Alaska.
Even so, you're probably not going to stop, which is why a city in Germany is giving in to the way that the world is in 2016 by installing special traffic lights in the ground so that text walkers never have to ever lift their heads up again. The ground lights have been installed at crosswalks in the city of Augsburg to warn people when a commuter tram is approaching, The Localreports.
The lights flash red to let people with their heads down know to stop. They go green when the regular light turns green.
The Augsburg trams run on electric, so they're pretty quiet, which is probably why two people were reportedly hit by them at the crosswalks recently, before the new lights were installed.
Smithsonian points out that a Governors Highway Safety Association report from last year showed that in the U.S., more than 1,500 people were injured in texting and walking accidents in 2010 (the most recent year included). A study from a few years back shows that people on their phones are 48 percent more likely to walk right into traffic.
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