In the article, “Floor lights helps ‘smartphone zombies’ keep eye on the
road,” Tan (2017) addressed that Singaporeans tend to look down on their phones
while crossing the road, this post a danger to themselves and the road. Hence, Land
Transport Authority (LTA) launched an initiative to counter the issue by
installing ground LED lights at pedestrian crossings. LTA said that it picked
two high pedestrian volume locations for six months to test for its
effectiveness before officially installing in other places. LTA also further
stated that it weighs a hefty price tag of $10,000 to $13,000 of each pair of strips at
the crossing stands.
LTA’s initiative to install the ground light will cause the mobile phone
users to be over-reliance of this situation. According to an article, Jose de Jong said “We
don't want people to use phones when they're dealing with traffic, even when
walking around. People must always look around them, to check if cars are
actually stopping at the red signals.”
If the initiative mass installs across the country, mobile phone users
will soon be dependent on the ground light and will not check on traffic before
crossing the road. Dutch road safety group VVN said “It encouraged bad
behaviour”. For instance, if the vehicle is not able to stop on time and users
overlooked the situation and cross, the accident maybe detrimental.
Alternatively, LTA should work against educating people about the
negative consequences of using mobile phones whilst crossing the roads rather
than implementing on pricey LED lights along the pedestrian crossings. In an article, “Educate ‘smartphone zombies’,
not accommodate them” Pakri (2017) stated that “there is no need for LTA to
accommodate these “smartphone zombies”. It should be instead discouraged such
behaviour on the road”. The author also
said “at least deploy officers at pedestrian crossings to caution and educate
them”. This idea will work well as the ‘smartphone zombies’ will be stopped and
be warn about the danger of it.
Based on the article, “Road safety campaign takes a VR twist” Chua
(2017) stated that road users will get up close with dangerous traffic
situations without any risks through the help of Virtual Reality (VR) system. This
approach aims the younger generations about the danger of traffic and
pedestrian skills. The system requires the users to turn their heads to the
left and right like the actual pedestrian crossing setting to look out for
vehicles before crossing. This campaign will instil muscles memory to people to
watch out for traffic before making the cross.
Not only should this campaign target the younger generation, it should
also reach out to everyone around the world. Aside from Singapore, other
countries are facing the similar issues and they are implementing the LED
strips as well. Why not set up campaign to educate all these people from the
danger of crossing road with eyes glued to their mobile phones.
In conclusion, LTA should
reassess the need to implement on LED strips on the pedestrian crossings as it
is a short-term solution and it will cause people to be over reliance on the
lights. Furthermore, the LED strips will also bring negative effects of
complacency and harmful learning to the younger generations. Instead of
investing on LED strips, the LTA should educate and send messages to people
about the consequences of crossing the road blindly. In addition, campaigns can
be set up at various crossings with high traffic volume so people like learn
more about it.
26 September 2017
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