A NEW PEDESTRIAN light aimed at getting people to pay attention to traffic at busy junctions has been installed at Tara Street in Dublin city.

The measure involves a diffuse red light which is cast on the ground on the edge of the road.

One of the aims for the additional light is to get people who are looking down at their smartphones, or are otherwise distracted, to pay attention to the traffic crossing ahead.

So far the light has been implemented at Tara Street, with further ground-level LED lights at crossings on Capel Street that have not yet been turned on yet.

Similar systems have been employed elsewhere in Europe, including Poland and the Netherlands. 

Feljin Jose, Dublin City Councillor and Green party transport spokesperson, said: “The broad idea is that they are being trialled at very busy junctions where there’s a lot of pedestrians crossing that may be distracted”.

He added that the measure is “worth trying”. He said: “That’s exactly the kind of thing that the traffic department should be doing, seeing what improves safety and what doesn’t”.

Jose added that this measure is in the early stages, and it isn’t clear yet what the outcome from the light will be. 

Ground-based LEDs on Capel Street, not turned on. Feljin Jose Feljin Jose

Mannix Flynn, a non-party Dublin City Councillor who represents the area where Tara Street is located and is on the mobility and public realm committee, was critical of the trial of the new crossing and said of the technology that the public were “being used as guinea pigs without their consent”.

A spokesperson for the council said they are trialling a “number of technologies” to better alert the public to changes of pedestrian signals as there has been an “increasing concern” regarding mobile phone users at pedestrian crossings not observing changes of signals while they are on their phone.

They added: “DCC have been trialling this technology at Tara Street for a number of months and will also be trialling different technology at other crossings to determine if there is any requirement for this type of technology to be rolled out at other locations”.

“To date it is too early to determine if any particular technology is suitable and if there is sufficient evidence to roll it out at further locations”.