After 61 people were killed on roads in New South Wales in 2015 — a 49 percent increase from 2014 — the government will install traffic lights in the ground at some major intersections in Sydney to protect those who insist on texting and walking. As Mashable reports, the government will commit to a six-month trial of the lights at a total cost of A$250,000 (roughly $181, 300 U.S.), starting in December.
Though the locations for the traffic lights haven’t been announced yet, they will likely be in Sydney’s densely packed central business district.
The effort is a part of Australia’s Towards Zero campaign, which aims for “a future free of deaths and serious injuries on our roads.”
Last year, Sydney’s city council approved a plan to make Sydney a “walking city.” It aims to increase on-foot commutes, widen paths and reduce pedestrian-driver collisions, among other aims. It’s a big change for the city, which for many years was a place where “car is king,” according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The traffic-light plan is similar to that of Ausburg, Germany, which made headlines late April for its plan to prevent texters from crossing train tracks by embedding traffic lights in the ground.
