Two years ago, lawmakers in Albany decided it'd be a worthwhile use of state power to compel the New York City Department of Transportation to study the "dangers of pedestrians being distracted by use of a mobile device." That report was released by the DOT late last week, confirming what transportation experts already knew to be true: texting while walking poses an all but negligible hazard to pedestrians, especially compared to the myriad actual threats of crossing city streets. Paraphrasing a bit here, "it's the cars, stupid!"

As part of the mandated study, the DOT conducted an in-depth review of written crash narratives in the city between 2014 and 2017. They found just .2 percent of reports made any mention of pedestrians using electronic devices. In one of those cases, the victim was actually reaching to pick up a dropped cell phone when they were fatally struck by a driver.

Those numbers bore out at the national level as well. According to the last six years of available federal data, fatalities involving the use of portable electronic devices by pedestrians represented between 0 and .2 percent of pedestrian deaths.

"Despite the increasing attention to device use and pedestrian distraction, the available national or New York City fatality data do not support a strong connection to fatalities," the report concluded. Noting that a majority of pedestrian deaths in NYC are the result of speeding, inattention, or failure to yield on the part of drivers, the agency emphasized that "ultimately, interventions that lead to more responsible driving behavior are the key to driving down fatalities throughout the city."

The inordinate focus on the texting pedestrian boogyman is as old as the iPhone. After a teenager was killed by a hit-and-run driver on a dangerous Queens street in 2015, State Senator Jose Peralta and Assemblyman Michael DenDekker held a press conference highlighting the dangers of distracted walking and calling for a public awareness campaign to make it stop. (Peralta, who passed away last year, was the one who first suggested the DOT study this issue).

More recently, Queens State Senator John Liu adopted a longstanding Assembly bill that would fine pedestrians who look at their phones in the crosswalk between $25 and $250. Asked about the bill this past May, Liu characterized texting and crossing the street as a growing public health concern. He did not have any data to support the assertion, but said he'd heard from many constituents that it was a problem.

Reached for comment on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the senator wrote to Gothamist, "Drivers have the responsibility of driving safely and not hitting anybody. Nonetheless, pedestrians can take greater care, as well, and wait the 10 seconds necessary to get to the other side of the street. If DOT does conclude that having eyes glued to a device rather than the street being crossed is indeed not a risk, than it does remove the urgency of the bill."

Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, who sponsors the companion bill in the Assembly, could not immediately be reached for comment.

UPDATE: Following publication of this story, Ortiz told Gothamist he "completely disagree[d]" with both the methodology and the conclusions of the study. "We have to look at their sampling," he said. "I would tell you this much: if you interview drivers like I have, you're going to find out that they're frustrated...at pedestrians when they see them talking on the phone."

The assemblyman went on to say that DOT should embark on "an aggressive campaign addressing the importance of pedestrians not being distracted," and cited the two deaths mentioned in the report as proof that this was a serious problem. (In one of those instances, it's unclear if the victim was looking at his phone before reaching for it and getting run over.)

"Pedestrians need to be more cautious," Ortiz continued. "If they want to live longer they should be conscious of not talking or texting while crossing the street."