Amsterdam Places Traffic Lights In the ground to protect distracted phone walkers
Safety officials in Amsterdam have introduced an unusual way of trying to keep ‘smartphone-addicted’ residents safe: Installing traffic lights in the pavement. Rotterdam and other cities in Amsterdam, have placed pavement lights at busy pedestrian crossings so distracted smart phone users won’t wander dangerously into traffic.
The notion that this has to be done may seem somewhat comical, but ‘smartphone-distracted’ pedestrians are becoming a big problem for cities all over the world. It is estimated that distracted-walking incidents have risen by 2400 % in the last 10 years according to the US Dept. of Traffic Safety, and its not showing any signs of slowing down as the digital on-the-go generation keeps staring down.
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A spokesperson for the company told the Dutch-site OmroepWest:
“Distracted Smartphone users and cyclists are a major problem here, our Trams in The Hague area regularly have to make emergency stops several times a day because someone is looking at their smartphone instead of traffic.”
“We have made several public safety announcements to pedestrians about distracted walking, however we are still seeing an increase in incidents. We feel as though this is a strong technological solution to a growing problem”
This is a sobering reminder of once technology is created new inventions have to be created to keep us safe from it.
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