Jun 27, 2018
Urban Digital Design for Petextrians
In the interests of traffic safety, can I suggest that urban and smart city design explore traffic signals located at ground level, directly in the eyeline of distracted smartphone-gazing pedestrians (or “petextrians” as they are known)?
Some of these systems are being experimented with in Germany and elsewhere. The Germans even have a term of their own for “petextrian”: Smombie.
But, even better, why not leverage bluetooth, wireless and geolocating mobile technology itself and display the traffic signals directly onto the smartphone’s screen as the petextrian approaches a crossing or junction?
