More safety for cell phone-using pedestrians

German transportation provider Stadtwerke Augsburg is experimenting with warning lights at two pedestrian crossings in the city in an effort to alert oblivious phone-using pedestrians to approaching trams. Rows of flashing LED lights installed into the kerb are intended to act as an alternative to conventional warning signs; when a tram approaches, they flash red to warn pedestrians that the traffic signal is red and green when it is safe to cross.
April 26, 2016 Read time: 1 min

German transportation provider Stadtwerke Augsburg is experimenting with warning lights at two pedestrian crossings in the city in an effort to alert oblivious phone-using pedestrians to approaching trams.

Rows of flashing LED lights installed into the kerb are intended to act as an alternative to conventional warning signs; when a tram approaches, they flash red to warn pedestrians that the traffic signal is red and green when it is safe to cross.

According to the Germany-based transportation research firm 7114 Dekra, an estimated 17 per cent of pedestrians engage with their smartphones in some way while walking. The prevalence of this habit is correlated with a rise in pedestrian accidents.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Road safety, fatalities increasing adoption of enforcement cameras, says research
    July 8, 2016
    According to a new market report published by Credence Research, Traffic Enforcement Camera Market – Growth, Share, Opportunities, Competitive Analysis, and Forecast 2015-2022, stringent road safety regulations and efforts to reduce road fatalities across the world are increasing the adoption of traffic enforcement cameras. In addition, road safety programs to improve motorist and pedestrian safety are also expected to influence the market growth in future. Countries across the world are continuously
    Read More
  • Lack of progress in reducing drink-drive deaths has gone on too long says IAM RoadSmart
    February 3, 2017
    The UK’s independent road safety charity IAM RoadSmart has expressed disappointment in yet another year of no significant change in the levels of drink-driving in Britain, based on new Government statistics just announced. The Department for Transport announced that provisional estimates for 2015 show 220 deaths in alcohol related crashes. Some 1,380 people were killed or seriously injured when at least one driver was over the limit. This represents a statistically significant rise from 1,310 in 2014. In
    Read More
  • Australia’s largest intelligent vehicle trial to be held in Queensland
    November 25, 2016
    Queensland is preparing for driverless and connected vehicles with ambitious plans underway for a four-year on-road testing trial in Australia as part of the Cooperative and Automated Vehicle Initiative (CAVI) to ensure the State is ready for the future. The government has chosen the urban area of Ipswich as the site of the large-scale test-bed to trial vehicles and infrastructure that can talk to one another as well as to test cooperative and highly-automated vehicles. Around 500 motorists will be recru
    Read More
  • Unlocking Toronto’s gridlock
    March 26, 2013
    A project by University of Toronto professor of civil engineering Professor Baher Abdulhai marries cameras with computers to create traffic lights that can measure vehicle flow, understand what it means, and adapt signal patterns to reduce gridlock. “We want the traffic light to learn from experience,” explained Prof. Abdulhai, who is principal investigator on the University of Toronto project, dubbed Marlin, and an expert in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). “In the Toronto experiment we cut down d
    Read More

Highlighted Content