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Normally when you need to wait at a crossing because it's red you take out your phone to waste some time. But you have to be quite anxious and look up if it's already green or not, otherwise you miss the green light.

But they help you out with that here in Korea by building in the traffic light into the curb. You're looking down on your phone and see the red line left and right of it. Once it changes to green you immediately are aware of it because it's in your field of view constantly.

Great invention!

I took the background picture just outside and put the stock picture hands with a phone on top of it so you can easier visualize it how it looks like in reality.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Everyone is boomering about the damn kids these days and their phones, but this seems like a cool extra bit accessibility that happens to help people on their phones.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Do crosswalks literally have marks on the ground now for people who don't look up from their phones?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The entirety of it. The fact it needs to be invented and installed but what's worse is that this person thinks it's a good idea.

It's very concerning.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Like, I'd be fine if this was helpful to people with disabilities, but I have no idea how this would help anyone

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

The last thing I want to focus my attention on when I'm in traffic is my phone screen.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Everyone needs to be dropped in a place with no internet for 6 months.

Problem solved.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Drop them there with shovels tho, cuz there will be a lot of dead bodies of people who starved when they couldn't order food. Actually the shovels would only be necessarily for a short time, as a ton of them would be left lying around next to the bodies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hah, fair point. How about "Dropped in a place with a functional society and no internet, that, yea, magically exists somewhere."?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In that case I would take my modern device with me that's loaded up with gigabytes of music from the last hundred years, and amaze some king or queen with my magic.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Someone's been reading comments on the zapped back in time post.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Says the guy with 1386 comments on his own instance of a fringe social media software :D

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Yup, that's me. But I also put it away regularly to experience everything else the world has to offer. Sometimes for pretty extended periods of time, too. And you know, not walk out into traffic.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Do your crossings not make noise? When ours (south Australia) is ready to cross it's very noisy and obvious

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Peeeeeeeewdududududududududududuh

I use to live next to a silent crossing and it threw me every time, despite crossing it twice every week day for years

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Fun fact that you probably know: the background ‘ticking’ in the chorus of Bad Guy by Billie Eilish is the sound made by traffic lights in Sydney

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I did not know that. That's pretty neat; thank you for sharing!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago

I like to look around at the cars going by, examine the infrastructure around the intersection like the nerd I am, and when the countdown starts (the crosswalk signals usually have a countdown until they switch to "GO") I'm looking back and forth between the signal and traffic to see who's stopping and who's trying to beat the light.

I'm not about to trust my life to a signal when so many drivers are too busy on their phones to notice the big lights in front of them shining a different color than it did a second ago.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Finland had a solution for this long before smartphones even existed. Pedestrian traffic lights here play different tones depending on whether it’s red or green, allowing blind or visually impaired people to safely navigate the city.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

And one city (Pori) has fricking LASERS projecting a red line on the path when the light is red

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, bringing more accessibility is very good even if it is quite annoying if you live nearby I guess.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

In Scandinavia the boxes have microphones and listens to the ambient sound and lowered and raises its sound accordingly. Some even detect humans around it so if noone are around they turn barely audible. Really nice design.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In your country there isn't a sound for when you can cross?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sadly no. Actually there is a button sometimes, but I couldn't figure what it is for. It's not for blind people because it doesn't make a sound.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What do the visually impaired do?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've been living here for 4 years and basically never seen any disabled people. Perhaps one or two wheel chairs but otherwise nobody. Same with all the parking spots for disabled, they are all empty all the times.

From what I gather disabled people are mostly kept inside. From https://www.goisc.org/englishblog/2022/5/12/the-struggle-never-ends-the-apr-20-protests-against-disability-discrimination

In Korea, it seems people with disabilities only exist on April 20. Only on this day do politicians flock to the official ceremony to display their concern as famous singers perform on stage; as awards are handed to those who “overcame” their disability and are living like non-disabled people; and as stories of “normal people” who “helped” the disabled touch the hearts of many. However, once the day is over, people with disabilities are forgotten once again, and business goes on as usual, centered on non-disabled people. Disabled people who cannot “overcome” their disability and live like non-disabled people find themselves unable to travel freely, get education, or get work as before. Even worse, they might be confined to their homes or to facilities for the disabled under the pretense of “protection” just awaiting their deaths.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

That's incredibly depressing.

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