Blessed is the bow party. This LED sidewalk can save lives.

The crosswalk design is designed to protect pedestrians crossing the road, but it does not provide unconditional protection to pedestrians. At least, pedestrians need to observe whether there is any danger in their walking direction. Today, the traffic safety of pedestrians is faced with more risks. A large number of studies show that the number of traffic accidents caused by distraction by mobile phones has increased significantly. Obviously, there are more and more "down group" people crossing the street habits are deteriorating, they will only slow down, but the eyes are still on the mobile phone screen instead of concentrating on the road to see the car. "Smart phones have really changed many people's habits, but the traffic environment of people's travel has not changed due to smart phones," said Soren Luckins, founder of B ro North, Melbourne design studio. In order to protect the safety of the "lower class" people, his solution is to set the signal on the crosswalk on the ground, because the "down group" is easier to see. In addition to the red and green LED signal used to remind pedestrians to pass safely, he also designed a vibration signal prompting device for the visually impaired people, which can be perceived by the body. He called the scheme "intelligent perceptible sidewalk". Of course, this concept of intelligent sidewalk semaphore is not first proposed. Earlier this year, a company in Augsburg, Germany, installed a group of intelligent LED signals on the ground of two rail crossings. When the tram came, the red light warning signal would be issued to alert pedestrians to safety. At the same time, similar experiments were carried out in Cologne City, adjacent to Augsburg. You may think that it is not a good idea to put the LED signal on the ground, because it can only be more accustomed to those "bow down" people, making them more dependent on mobile phones all the time and unable to extricate themselves. Soren Luckins also heard a similar sound. "Actually, I don't think the" bottom line "is more and more good," he said. "But you really have the power to change these people's habit of" lowering their heads "or you have to accept this reality. Soren Luckins's view is that our city is obliged to provide a safe travel environment for the public. "If people's travel habits change, then the city should adapt to it." He said. The question is: how should we change? For urban planners, this problem seems to go beyond technology and rise to the height of philosophy. When you design the city, do you want to compromise with the existing living habits of the citizens, or to guide the citizens to develop better habits? Soren Luckins clearly holds the former view, while the late Traffic Engineer Hans Monderman is a supporter of the latter view. Hans Monderman is famous for designing the signal free traffic system in northern Holland. In the traffic system designed by him, there is no signal lamp, no lane and no guide sign. His design idea is that drivers will be more vigilant when they drive to the intersection without signs and signal prompts, so as to ensure a safer and more efficient crossing. This idea seems unreasonable, but actually it reduces traffic accidents. However, there is a big risk in Monderman's way. "I don't think that there is no road limitation to ensure pedestrian safety," said Sarah Kaufman, assistant director of technical projects at Rudin Transportation Research Center, New York University. She cited the example of London, where the traffic management department urged citizens to "look left and right" when crossing the road. "I think the sidewalk LED is too advanced," she said. Other programs are trying to prompt pedestrians to pay attention to intersection safety through mobile phone software. The Stephanie Lermen of SW Augsburg, the German LED project agent mentioned above, also said that the company had considered the software prompts before designing the road LED plan, but finally chose the current plan. "We want to reduce pedestrian operation as much as possible," she said. "If you want to download an extra APP for crossing the road, isn't that a lot?" Luckins said that if he were in an ideal world, he would choose to design a solution to encourage people to develop good habits instead of using them as they are now. But our real world is not an ideal state after all. "If people can consciously develop good habits, then what we do at present is unnecessary," he said. "But the fact is that a lot of bad habits lead to a lot of traffic accidents." Lermen agrees. "As a traffic planner, it is not our job to teach people how to live the right way. Our job is to ensure people's safety on the road."