Skip to main content

Melbourne trials light-changing footpaths

The city of Melbourne, Australia, is trialling new technology in a bid to improve pedestrian safety at intersections. Lights have been installed in footpaths along the edge of the road at the intersection of Little Collins Street and Swanston Street. They change colour between red and green in time with the pedestrian crossing signals. The lights will be switched on around the clock, helping people walking at night or looking down at their phones know where the footpath ends. The intersection was cho
March 27, 2017 Read time: 1 min
The city of Melbourne, Australia, is trialling new technology in a bid to improve pedestrian safety at intersections.

Lights have been installed in footpaths along the edge of the road at the intersection of Little Collins Street and Swanston Street. They change colour between red and green in time with the pedestrian crossing signals. The lights will be switched on around the clock, helping people walking at night or looking down at their phones know where the footpath ends.

The intersection was chosen for the trial due to a large number of people who cross roads at the intersection and disobey pedestrian crossing signals.

At the end of the twelve month trial, Victoria’s road safety agencies will assess the footpath infrastructure’s suitability for roll out at other intersections across Melbourne.
UTC

Related Content

  • May 18, 2020
    Car-free zones part of London 'reimagining'
    Parts of central London will become “one of the largest car-free zones in any capital city in the world”, according to the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan.
  • September 5, 2018
    Connected Signals improves driver safety in Florida
    Connected Signals is providing drivers in Gainesville, Florida, with real-time predictive traffic information to let them know when traffic lights are going to change. The company says sharing the data with vehicles and drivers can improve fuel efficiency by 8-15% and reduce red-light crashes by 25%. Aggregated real-time signal information, fed through predictive algorithms, is sent to Gainesville drivers via the company’s Enlighten mobile app. The app will eventually be integrated with connected car dis
  • February 17, 2020
    AAA report: caught red-handed
    Using published crash statistics, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s report found that 939 people were killed in red-light running crashes in 2017 – a rise of 28% since 2012. Moreover, more than a quarter (28%) of crash deaths at signalised intersections “are the result of a driver running through a red light”.
  • February 23, 2017
    LiDAR sets its sights on future problems
    AAdvances in LiDAR are helping transport authorities improve services and identify potential problem areas, as geospatial technology expert Dr Neil Slatcher explains. The effects of climate change on the transport infrastructure have long been a cause of concern within the transportation sector - and not only on the structures themselves but also on the surrounding areas. This year, those concerns have become reality with landslides, structural collapses and surfacing issues impacting services across the wo