The Councilor for Security and Emergencies, Federico Alarcón, informs that the City Council of Torrevieja, in the hands of a company from Alicante, has installed a new and pioneering system to help pedestrians, which prevents them from invading the road when they walk distracted using of your Smartphone. It is a pilot project that has been installed at the traffic light located on Avenida de La Libertad, in front of the Torrevieja Casino, Torrevieja being the first city in Europe where it is implemented.
This so-called smart traffic light has a lighting device with the image of a pedestrian on the road that turns red when the traffic light is red and green when it is green. In this way, the pedestrians who are going to cross the zebra crossing and who are looking at the ground using their Smartphone immediately notice the color of the traffic light.
Federico Alarcón has highlighted that the lack of attention shown by numerous pedestrians is increasing, more aware of their mobile than traffic. Because, as stated in a study carried out in 2019 by Ponle Freno and Axa, 37% of those surveyed have admitted crossing the street looking at their Smartphone.
Finally, the Councilor for Safety and Emergencies has reported that this device will be presented as a novelty at the Amsterdam Mobility and Road Safety Fair, INTERTRAFFIC, the largest event in the sector in Europe.