Antwerp now has 'text lanes' for pedestrians who are glued to their mobile phones

The lines in the Belgian are reported to have been painted by a Dutch mobile phone company

The Belgian city of Antwerp has dedicated specific ‘text lanes’ similar to cycle lanes, for pedestrians who are glued to their mobile phones.

The walkways, marked with white paint and the signage ‘text walking lane’, are designed to enable those on their phone texting to walk without disrupting regular pedestrians.

The lines are reported by website Bored Panda to have been laid out by Dutch smartphone specialist company, MLab.

The aim is to prevent broken screens, buttons and cases when mobile phone users collide with pedestrians.

As The Independent reported in October 2014, there are now more mobile devices on the planet than there are human beings.

As of today, GSMA’s real time tracker puts the number of mobile devices at approximately 7.52 billion, while the population of the world is estimated to be approximately 7.25 billion by the US Census Bureau.