The dangers of texting while driving are well known, but a B.C. safety organization is taking new steps to get people to think twice before texting while walking.
This fall, Preventable BC has been using “geofencing” technology to send pedestrians at certain busy intersections in Vancouver and Victoria a reminder of the dangers of texting while walking.
When people with geo-enabled mobile devices cross the virtual boundary set up at these intersections, they will receive this message from Preventable: “If you’re texting while walking, have a word with yourself.”
There are more than 2,700 pedestrian injuries in British Columbia each year, according to Preventable, and more than 40 per cent of them are the result of pedestrians ignoring or disobeying traffic signals.
The geofencing campaign will continue through Oct. 31 at roughly a dozen intersections in Vancouver and six in Victoria, with the message going out to people who pass within a 250-metre radius of those locations.
