This Sunday’s reading from the Letter to the Ephesians urges its audience to “put away the old self of your former way of life” and “put on the new self created in God's way.” State and local safety and transportation officials nationwide are trying to figure out a way to get pedestrians to put away the smart phones, video games, and tablets and pay attention to their surroundings.

Reports of injuries to distracted walkers treated at hospital emergency rooms have more than quadrupled in the past seven years and are almost certainly underreported. There has been a rise in pedestrians killed and injured in traffic accidents, but there is no reliable data on how many were distracted by electronics.

"We are where we were with cell-phone use in cars 10 years or so ago. We knew it was a problem, but we didn't have the data," said Jonathan Akins, deputy executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety offices. As officials struggle to figure out how to respond to the problem, they are asking how far government should go in trying to protect people from themselves.

In Delaware highway safety officials opted for a public education campaign, placing decals on crosswalks and sidewalks at busy intersections urging pedestrians to "Look up. Drivers aren't always looking out for you."

As an April Fools’ Day prank with a serious message, Philadelphia officials taped off an "e-lane" for distracted pedestrians on a sidewalk outside downtown office buildings. Some didn't get that it was a joke. "The sad part is we had people who, once they realized we were going to take the e-lane away, got mad because they thought it was really helpful to not have people get in their way while they were walking and texting," Cutler said.

Source: An article by Associated Press via Newsday