介绍:
German Town Installs Ground Traffic Lights
Nowadays, it is very common that people stare at their smart phones while walking. Fed up with having to constantly alert both locals and tourists to pay more attention to their surroundings to avoid accidents, authorities in a small German town have come up with a better solution — installing traffic lights in the pavement to make them visible to people constantly looking down at their phones.
The safety measure was put in place after two pedestrians in the town of Augsburg were recently hit by electric street trains as they crossed the street staring at their phones. They both escaped with only slight injuries, but a 15-year-old girl wasn’t so lucky. She was hit by a tram and died. Then authorities in Augsburg decided to install ground level traffic lights at two tram stops. The lights flash red when a tram is approaching, or when the regular traffic light turns red.
“We realised that the normal traffic lights weren’t in the line of sight of many pedestrians these days,” said Tobias Hermes, an official. “So we decided to have an additional set of lights. The more we have, the more people are likely to notice them.”
Some Augsburg residents appear to be quite happy with the act. “I think it makes sense,” said one local. “I often see young people these days running over red lights. This makes it more obvious that you need to stop.”
However, others found the need for ground traffic lights disturbing and even frightening. “I find it scary that smart phone users are so addicted that they need lights installed in the ground so that they notice the tram coming,” one person told the local paper.
But do this kind of ground traffic lights actually work? “To be honest I didn’t even notice it,” said a pedestrian. “Maybe it would be useful at night, but I didn’t realize it was there until just now.”
