The red LED lights illuminating the sidewalks below are expected to help pedestrians who are distracted by their smartphones pay more attention to traffic.
A new solution is being tested to ensure the safety of pedestrians crossing streets amidst the increasing number of people glued to their phones and encountering accidents, Bloomberg reported on August 24. The trial is taking place at four locations and will last for six months.
Red LED lights illuminating a crosswalk in Hong Kong to alert pedestrians to stop. (Photo: Billy HC Kwok/Bloomberg)
“With the increasing popularity of smartphones, many pedestrians are distracted,” said traffic engineer Alex Au. Instead of relying solely on traditional red pedestrian signals to indicate when to stop, authorities have installed red LED lights to illuminate crosswalks. They hope that those looking down at their phones will notice the illuminated sidewalk and come to a halt.
For decades, experts have developed various measures to ensure the safety of pedestrians crossing streets. Different auditory signals, from bird calls to rhythmic melodies, have been employed to assist visually impaired individuals. Some countries, like Australia, have installed vibrating signs for the visually or hearing impaired to touch and know when it is safe to cross the street.
The distraction caused by smartphones continues to drive the emergence of new solutions. Seoul, the capital of South Korea, has installed red and green LED lights at the edges of intersections, while cities like Cologne and Augsburg in Germany are testing LED strips at tram crossings.
The new traffic signal trial has sparked varied reactions. At a testing site in Causeway Bay, pedestrian Shirley Chan noted that the LED lights helped her focus on traffic rather than her phone. However, she also expressed concern that people would soon become accustomed to them and treat them as if they did not exist. At another crosswalk, pedestrian Alex Chan remarked that the lights appeared strange and could make some people feel uneasy.
Hendrik Tieben, director of the School of Architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, welcomed the trial but warned that many crosswalks in Hong Kong remain dangerous due to the lack of any signage. “One of my biggest concerns is the danger posed by pedestrians using their phones at crosswalks without any signals,” Tieben stated. He supports reducing the speed limit to 30 km/h on streets where pedestrians and cyclists share the road with vehicles.
