Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 23, 2026
Measuring the Switch Cost of Smartphone Use While Walking
Published on: April 30, 2020
Cellular telephone use during free-living walking significantly reduces average walking speed
Jacob E Barkley1, Andrew Lepp2
1College of Education, Health and Human Services, Kent State University, White Hall, Kent, OH, 44242-000, USA. jbarkle1@kent.edu.
Background:
Cellular telephone (cell phone) use decreases walking speed in controlled laboratory experiments and there is an inverse relationship between free-living walking speed and heart failure risk. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of cell phone use on walking speed in a free-living environment.
Methods:
Subjects (n = 1142) were randomly observed walking on a 50 m University campus walkway. The time it took each subject to walk 50 m was recorded and subjects were coded into categories: cell phone held to the ear (talking, n = 95), holding and looking at the cell phone (texting, n = 118), not visibly using the cell phone (no use, n = 929).
Results:
Subjects took significantly (p < 0.001) longer traversing the walkway when talking (39.3 s) and texting (37.9 s) versus no use (35.3 s).
Conclusion:
As was the case with the previous laboratory experiments, cell phone use significantly reduces average speed during free-living walking.
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