A portion of a sidewalk on 18th Street NW was divided yesterday into two lanes — one marked with the text “no cellphones” — for a show on National Geographic Channel.

According to a permit, the lanes were created for Mind Over Masses, “a new science show that uses what we know about human behavior to create fun an interactive solutions to everyday problems.”

Rob Pegoraro at Yahoo! got to observe yesterday’s experiment for an hour and found:

  • Only a minority of pedestrians altered their course once they spotted the stencils.
  • The most consistent effect of painted instructions telling people where to walk with their cellphones: People with phones stop, take them out, and take a picture. I saw that happen at least four times. Nobody took a selfie, though.
  • All three people seen smoking cigarettes (plus the one “vaping” on an e-cig) took to the phone lanes.

    • While having portions of a sidewalk devoted for cellphone users may seem like a good idea, these lanes were just temporary. They were washed away this morning

    Filed Under: mind over masses, no cellphones,