We know it’s a really bad idea to talk or text while you’re driving, but what about walking and talking?
New research suggests that gabbing on a cell phone may not be such as good idea while you’re crossing the street, especially for older people.
In a clever experiment, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign simulated a busy crosswalk without a traffic light by connecting a treadmill to a virtual reality screen that displayed the intersection along with cars passing through the walk. Two groups of participants, one recruited from the undergraduate population and aged 18 to 25 years, and another pulled from the community and aged 59 to 81 years, walked across the intersection three times.
Full story: Talking on a cell phone isn’t just dangerous while driving- it makes walking hazardous as well