People are always on the go in today's busy world. There's always a rush to be somewhere else. In major cities around the world, that makes traffic lights and cross walks the most dangerous places for pedestrians. Who has time to stand and do nothing for 30-90 seconds? People have things to do and places to be - they need to cross that street now!
In order to make pedestrian crossings safer places, the ingenious team from Smart, the same minds who brought tiny e-cars to the streets, came up with an idea for the dancing "Do Not Cross" man traffic light. The idea was to make the wait not as boring for restless pedestrians. And there's nothing more entertaining than a burst of spontaneous dancing!
As presented in Smart's making-of video, motion capture cameras translated real-time movements from volunteer dancers who went into a black mini-theatre, called The Dance Box, set up in a park not too far away from the intersection. Inside, energetic music would play which they could sway, bump and grind, and gyrate to like their own private mini-disco. Their movements would be translated onto the 'Do Not Cross' man onto the traffic light to so people could watch and dance along in amusement instead of dangerously crossing the street.
Instead of a boring red man standing stagnant in a black traffic light box, the LED traffic lights show a red silhouette doing the moonwalk, the cha cha, twerking, and whatever other crazy dance moves volunteers came up with.
The results of the tests over the summer of July 2014 in Lisbon were quite impressive. Jaywalking was said to have plummeted by 81 percent where the Dancing Traffic Lights were installed.
Smart came up with the lights as part of their WhatAreYouFOR campaign to push for innovations that will make cities safer in a non-conventional way.
In keeping with the company's philosophy to use unique design to make city-living fun, passionate and safe for people and the environment, the dancing traffic light is certainly an amusing solution to keep pedestrians out of harm's way.
"It is ideas that make our cities better places. For more joie de vivre. For more sustainability. For more fun. Discover our "mind openers" - urban experiments for a better future for the city," says the campaign's official website.
The Dancing Traffic Light is second project to come out of Smart's WhatAreYouFOR campaign. Other endeavors included a football vending machine and some prank teasers for a new generation of bigger e-cars for city living.
