THE municipality of the Dutch town of Bodegraven installed a special lighting system to counter an increase in traffic accidents involving pedestrians using their smartphones.
The lights are directly on the pavement to signal to people looking down on their phones that it is safe to cross.
The led-lit pavement stripes, one on each side of a road crossing, are synchronized with the traffic lights. They blink green or red, so a smartphone user can keep his eyes on the screen and simultaneously see the change of traffic lights on the pavement below him.
The road crossing where the system has been installed is in the vicinity of three schools.
Bodegraven municipality traffic engineer Dolf Roodenburg said some research had shown that smartphones are a leading cause of traffic accidents among youth. (With a report from Reuters)