Turns out South Korea has a real problem with people walking into traffic. Pedestrians are so distracted by their phones that they keep stepping into the street and getting injured by oncoming traffic.
So, in order to combat this, the South Korean government are setting up a nationwide laser trial. The concept is that by shooting lasers at pedestrians, they’ll become distracted and look up from their phones.
South Korea are trialling laser beams and flashing lights at pedestrian crossings to get people to look up from their phones and reduce pedestrian deaths.
The trial will involve placing blinking lights and laser beams at pedestrian crossings. The hope is that it will get pedestrians to look up from their phones, and encourage drivers to slow down. This new initiative will hopefully decrease the number of pedestrian deaths in the area. According to the 2017 Traffic Accident Analysis system, around 1,600 pedestrians were killed in car-related incidents.
The cost is said to be over $13,000USD per crossing, which is not cheap. But with one of the highest rates of pedestrian death in developed countries, and the most smartphones per capita in the world, it sounds like it could be worthwhile.
