Padded Lampposts For Texters

No, it’s not a joke. One area in London is padding its lampposts to stop people hurting themselves if they bang into them while texting. According to Vnunet, the first padded area will be Brick Lane in the East End, but if it’s successful, then it could be expanded eslewhere, including the popular tourist areasof the West End like Charing Cross Road and Oxford Street. The move is backed by the charity Living Streets. So why pad lampposts, anyway? Because, itappears, when people are texting they don’t look where they’re going. Directory Enquiry service 118118 ran a survey on texting injuries (and no,this is still not a joke), and discovered that there were 68,000 texting related injuries in the UK last year. One in ten occurred when someone bumped into something while texting. Around two-thirdsof the people questioned said they’d lost peripheral vision while texting, and one-third serious said they’d like lines on the sidewalk to show a safe route for walking texters. Thelamppost padding will be provided by 118118, which will advertise on it.