Vancouver police are sounding the alarm about distracted pedestrians, as law officials south of the border make the bold move of ticketing distracted offenders who text message on the go.

After dozens of pedestrian accidents caused by distracted texters, police in Fort Lee, New Jersey started issuing $85 tickets last month. To date, they've handed out more than 120.

"It's a big distraction. Pedestrians aren't watching where they're walking, they're not aware," said Fort Lee Police Chief Thomas Ripoli.

Police argue that people who are connected to their smartphones are more likely to ignore traffic signals or worse – walk straight into oncoming traffic.

"We're so connected to the digital world. We can't seem to put those devices away, even for just a few seconds when we cross the street," said Vancouver police Const. Lindsey Houghton.

A pair of professors at Stony Brook University found that no one is actually that good at texting and walking, with 60 per cent of test subjects more likely to veer off course than non-texters.

"Performing a dual task, such as talking or texting with a cell phone while walking, may interfere with working memory and result in walking errors," wrote the study's authors in their abstract.

Steele on Your Side conducted an experiment to see just how distracted people are while outside our busy downtown Vancouver studio.

We sent out a researcher dressed in a seven-foot mouse costume with a mission to see if she could get the attention of people engrossed in their phone and text conversations.

One woman stood mere feet away from the giant rodent, oblivious until the mouse mascot approached and startled her. Another was so absorbed in her smartphone she needed to be tapped on the shoulder.

We watched dozens of texters cross busy streets completely unaware of the human and vehicle traffic around them.

If you're still determined to text and walk and you don't want to run into anything or get into an accident, there's an app that gives you a better look of what's in front of you.

Type n Walk uses your smartphone's built-in camera to give you a live view of what's in front of you while you merrily text away.

Vancouver police say smartphone users should skip the app and show a little common sense instead.

"When you're crossing intersections or doing something where there's the potential to get hurt, put it away for a few seconds. It could save your life," said Houghton.

A study in the U.K. has found that one in 10 people manage to hurt themselves by walking into lamp posts while texting.

They've actually wrapped the lamp posts in a popular district in padding as part of an experiment to see if they can cut down the number of injuries. A total of 6.6 million people have apparently run into lamp posts in the past year in the U.K., reporting broken noses, cheekbones, and even a fractured skull.