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

  • October 26, 2016
    Building the case for photo enforcement
    As red light enforcement is returning to some intersections and being shut down at others, new evidence has been released backing the safety campaigners, reports Jon Masters. In 2014, 709 Americans were killed in red-light-running crashes and an estimated 126,000 were injured according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
  • November 5, 2019
    Melbourne to ‘increase non-car road space’ over 10 years
    The Australian city of Melbourne is proposing a 10-year plan to deliver more space for pedestrians, public transport users and cyclists.
  • February 12, 2015
    Framework for trialling road freight ITS begins in Australia
    The Victoria Government in Australia is sponsoring a new framework to trial technology on the state’s road network that will improve the operation of heavy vehicles and promote Victoria as Australia’s freight and logistics capital. Minister for Roads, Luke Donnellan, called on the heavy vehicle, freight and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) industries to develop innovative approaches to using intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and associated technology to improve the productivity and safety of ro
  • June 22, 2016
    Enforcement comes in many guises
    Colin Sowman looks at some enforcement case studies from around the world. It is a sad fact of life that unenforced laws are not adhered to by a sometimes sizable proportion of the public and once enforcement is seen to be lacking, some drivers can take this to extremes and authorities must decide how to regain control.