Q24N – A number of cities around the globe are installing traffic lights in pavements to prevent accidents caused by pedestrians distracted by their smartphones.
In Latin America, Argentina and Chile are the first with the “in-ground traffic-light technology”, which will shines red to indicate when it’s dangerous for pedestrians to cross the road.
According to a report in Infobae, Rosário, the major port city in Argentina, has taken the step of installing a sidewalk traffic light to prevent the increasing number of accidents linked to people paying more attention to their cellular phones than oncoming traffic.
TheBubble.com reports a study carried out by the non-governmental organization “Luchemos por la vida” in November last year found that pedestrians constituted 21 percent of all traffic-related deaths in Argentina; in Buenos Aires that figure exceeds 40 percent. Traffic accidents in Argentina are notoriously bad, with a report last week noting that deaths from accidents have increased by 25 percent over the last year.
In Chile, La Tercera reports the city of Concepción is the first in that country to install the sidewalk lights which will serve as a warning to people, who can keep their eyes on the ground (and cell phone) and stop as the light indicates.
Around the world, Germany, Holland, Australia, and Japan are some countries that have installed this type of traffic lights, in the face of its hyper-connected inhabitants who do not take their eyes off their cell phone.
The traffic light — which works in synchronization with standard traffic light — will shine a line on the sidewalk with LED lighting that corresponds with the light shown on the traffic light in front of them. The system is the same, green for go and red for stop, only this time it’s on the ground so pedestrians distracted by their phones don’t have to go through the “trouble” of looking up before crossing the street.
