There's a glaring problem with this staircase texting lane

Utah Valley University has installed a special "texting lane" on one of its stairwells to cater for students glued to their mobile phones.

Although the high-vis lines were painted on as a bit of a joke by the university's creative director, photos have quickly gone viral with many students decrying the epidemic of iPhone-obsessed hallway cloggers.

The New York Times even points out that the National Safety Council in the US recently released a study which showed "pedestrians buried in their cellphones suffered 11,101 injuries from 2000 to 2011". So perhaps there could be a safety aspect to the innovation too.

According to the university's creative director Matt Bambrough, the installation was to let students know "we are aware of who they are and where they’re coming from".

The design was meant for people to laugh at rather than a real attempt to direct traffic flow.

• Matt Bambrough

There's one main problem though: what happens when another person on their mobile phone comes down in the opposite direction?

More: At last... a slow lane for pedestrians using smartphones