Traffic Lights and Product Design
Traffic Light is something that we interact with on a daily base but few people actually gave much thoughts about it, until maybe they get a traffic ticket for running a red light. This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the first traffic light patent (US1251666) issued to James Hoge. Then in 1920, William Potts, a Detroit police officer, developed the first three-color signal, which added a yellow "caution" light. The red, yellow, and green light design has not changed much for a hundred years.
Human behavior is changing through the years and how we interact with others in our daily life is also changing with time. Not all countries or governments are aware of this and may not realize that such items that were designed decades ago, may not necessarily be serving the same purpose any more.
In a recent news report, Bodegraven, a town in the Netherlands, has installed LED light strips on the sidewalk that synchronize with traffic signals and turn red or green at pedestrian crossings, so that people can’t miss them even if their eyes are cast down toward their smartphone screens. Who would walk through traffic looking down on their phones!
I read a report that some cities had installed sensors to manage red/green traffic lights so that the lights would stay green on one way if there is no traffic on the other direction.
Increasing numbers of cities including Iceland, India and China are using optical illusions for pedestrian crossing lane that looks like it’s levitating a few inches from the pavement. On the street near where I currently live in Beijing, similar design patterns are also adopted to alert drivers and pedestrians.
During my visit to Vienna a couple of years ago, I noted that some of street lights were designed to do a social campaign to recognize the rights for gay people. A recent report about a dancing traffic light installed in Lisbon went one step further. The aims to encourage pedestrians to wait until it's safe to cross the road by making the traffic lights "dance" using motion capture technology.
This also reminds me of the center lawn area on the campus of University of Maryland, College Park. I was told that there were no paths in the original lawn layout. As students started walking on the lawn, walking paths were naturally created and those paths were then paved. What a brilliant idea!
This is amazing. Our behavior is changing. Technology is changing. Interaction between human and technology are changing. It is hard to imagine how artificial intelligence and driverless cars would fundamentally change how traffic lights work in the future. How about flying cars? I would love to hear your wild ideas.
Student at Colorado Technical University
4 年Thank you, for all your words of wisdom. Delightfully I visually read some of which you wrote. I pictured the world through your interpretation memorizing as it may sound. I wonder about the light that you said floated in the air. The drone as well. You spoke of Texas are we siting as the earth shifts, or was it another cruel intentions to over throw our government? Here we are Americans have we done something wrong? Because I recall the floor one night shifting as it rolled . My imagination thought are we at war ?Then again was that shift of earth just the earth grumbling again. This was years so long ago. I'm still left wondering how can we proceed in such delegations. Can Dharma prevail? Well longevity to all sir!
Leadership blogger, Aspiring Writer, Photographer, Marathon Runner
5 年There's a traffic light in Germany where you can play ping pong with the people on the other side to make waiting fun. https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/bwzlgo/theres_a_traffic_light_in_germany_where_you_can/
Leadership blogger, Aspiring Writer, Photographer, Marathon Runner
6 年Someday cars might talk to each other to coordinate traffic patterns and makes traffic lights obsolete. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uod-ndc102618.php