Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

The first mobile sidewalk was created in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, which has a big population of 28 million. According to the authorities of Chongqing, they designated the 50-meter-long "cellphone lane" for pedestrians who are used to using their phones while walking, next to a "no cellphone" lane. Cheng Nong, a spokeswoman for the Meixin Group, the district's property management company, said the idea of the dual pavement came from a program called Mind Over Masses from the US National Geographic Channel. A section of sidewalk in Washington adopted a similar division in July. "There are many elder people and children in the street and walking while staring at your cellphone may cause unnecessary collisions," Cheng explained. However, over the past few days, most of the pedestrians didn't notice the markings or observe the rules. Some say the experiment is designed to indulge pedestrians to play with their cellphones while others think it is a humanitarian design in that it could help reduce the possibility of collisions. Nevertheless, can we expect this 50-meter-long lane in a scenic area to really protect people who are addicted to cellphones?