# Smartphone Use in Traffic: A Pilot Study on Pedestrian Behavior
## 3 Use of Smartphones  
There are approximately 6.57 billion smartphones worldwide. Over the past few decades, technology has become the basis for progress, uniting the world socially and economically [25; 26; 28; 29]. This phenomenon is particularly evident in developing countries and emerging markets, where the use of smartphone technology is a manifestation of a competitive advantage [30; 31]. The use of smartphones around the world has increased in recent years. In developed countries, 84% of the population has access to smartphones. It is estimated that over 10 billion devices connected to mobile devices are in use worldwide [31; 32]. The UK had one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world in the first quarter of 2022. In Great Britain, 82.2% of the population used a smartphone in the first quarter of 2022. In Sweden and Germany, smartphone penetration was 78% in the first quarter of 2022 [30; 31; 32; 33]. In Poland, it was 64%, which proves that more than half of the population uses a smartphone [34]. Figure \(1\) shows the smartphone penetration characteristics in selected countries. The number of smartphone users has been growing steadily around the world. In 2019, the number of smartphone users in the world exceeded the level of three billion. This growth trend is predicted to continue over the next few years, adding several hundred million smartphone users annually to the global user base. Annually, sales of new smartphones stand at around 1.5 billion units, so an increase in the number of smartphone users is inevitable [35; 36]. In the United States, about 40% of parents equip their children with their first mobile phone before they are 10 years old. In some cases, such a device is already provided to three-year-olds [37; 38]. With each passing year, smartphones are becoming more efficient and versatile. Undoubtedly, this leads to increased adoption among users and an increase in the daily time spent on smartphone screens [37; 38; 39]. On average, people spend as much as 3 h and 15 min a day on their phones. Perhaps surprisingly, on average, your smartphone is used more often on weekdays than on weekends. People check their phones an average of 58 times a day [38; 39; 40]. And almost 52% of mobile phone checks (30 a day) take place during working hours. Smartphone users most often use the device for the following [37; 39]:  
* browsing websites--82.1%;
* using instant messaging--79.9%;
* using social networks--74.1%;
* receiving/sending email--67.5%;
* using mobile applications--66.6%;
* online shopping--41.6%;
* listening to music/radio--40.6%;
* taking care of official matters--30.1%;
* watching tv/movies, tv on demand--22.4%;
* sharing their own content--21.3%;
* playing games--19.5%;
* internet sales--15.4%. Every year, there are more and more collisions caused by the use of mobile phones. Using a mobile phone is dangerous for both pedestrians and drivers. Pedestrians, fascinated by what they see on phone screens, do not pay attention to what is happening on the street. Pedestrians can often be observed walking in an unknown direction with their heads pointed at the mobile phone screen [37; 38; 39]. It is especially dangerous when they cross the street in this way by entering pedestrian crossings. A pedestrian looking at the screen of a  
Figure 1: Characteristics of smartphone penetration in selected countries. mobile phone registers the movement of vehicles on the ride only from the corner of their eye. Police collision statistics show that such behavior leads to an increasing number of pedestrians' dying at road crossings [41; 42; 43; 44]. Pedestrians dominate the structure of those killed as a result of the road accident. In 2019, there were almost 7000 pedestrian collisions, in which 780 people were killed. For the purpose of limiting such collisions a special traffic light appears at some crossings, illuminating the pavement just in front of the road in red or green.