New York City Department of Transportation Report Finds "Little Concrete Evidence" That Distracted Walking Contributes to Pedestrian Fatalities and Injuries

Proposals for laws and ordinances that restrict "distracted walking" (walking while texting or using the internet on phones) have been all the rage. Now, however, it appears that governments are finally examining the issue and are (unsurprisingly) finding that the perceived plague of distracted walking is disconnected from reality.

New York City's Department of Transportation has issued this recent report finding "little concrete evidence that device-induced distracted walking contributes significantly to pedestrian fatalities and injuries." Coverage of the report is here, here, and here.

The report surveyed United States cases of pedestrian fatalities between 2010 and 2015 and found that were approximately 38 fatalities "involving pedestrian use of portable electronic devices" out of a total of 28,642 pedestrian fatalities. Additionally, the report surveyed New York City fataility reports from between 2014 and 2017 and found that cell phones were involved in two incidents where pedestrians were killed -- one where a pedestrian was texting, and another where the pedestrian was reaching for a dropped "mobile device." This was out of a total of 856 pedestrian fatality cases with available narratives.

The report included estimates of "cell phone-related injuries" on streets and highways--although most of those injuries involved cases where "a driver, passenger, or cyclist" was using a cell phone rather than the injured pedestrian. Even with this broader categorization, the percentage of injuries involving cell phone use was fairly low, ranging from 2.4 to 5.3 percent of all pedestrian injuries from 2009 to 2015.

While the report acknowledges that cell phones can be distracting, and includes several citations to studies regarding distraction, it notes that drivers remain the most important target for regulation. The report states that "the most significant gains in reducing pedestrian fatalities and severe injuries can be made by continuing to target the most dangerous behaviors -- such as driver speeding and failure-to-yield -- and by implementing street improvement projects that reduce the severity of crashes."

Legislators on the state and local level typically focus on anecdotes or instinct when it comes to passing overly broad restrictions against distracted walking. As I have noted before, these restrictions -- which target commonplace conduct -- will likely result in law enforcement officers having broad discretion in deciding who to cite, a scenario that lends itself to selective enforcement. Hopefully, lawmakers considering these regulations will see the New York City Department of Transportation report and note that their efforts to curtail pedestrian deaths and injuries would be better served by other means.