Heads up! Seoul launches campaign to keep smartphone users safe
One of world’s most wired cities is installing warning signs in five locations to prevent collisions between pedestrians and vehicles
Pedestrians glued to their smartphones were given something else to look at this week, as officials in Seoul launched a safety campaign to keep them from walking into busy traffic.
Smartphone-related collisions between pedestrians and vehicles in South Korea have more than doubled in five years to around 1,000 reported incidents in 2014, according to the Transportation Safety Authority.
The problem is especially acute in a country where smartphone penetration currently stands at around 80 per cent of the population, most of whom seem intent on mastering the art of walking and texting.
I think the signs on the pavements are too small to be noticed
In a bid to reduce the number of people either stepping carelessly into oncoming traffic or slamming into each other on the sidewalk, officials in Seoul – one of the world’s most wired cities – have begun installing the first batch of 300 warning signs this week in five locations across the capital.
“We picked locations with the highest number of young pedestrians since the majority of smartphone users are in their teens to their 30s,” said Kim Ooc-kyeong, a Seoul city official in charge of the project, on Wednesday.
Some signs are attached to traffic light poles and depict a person looking at his smartphone as he is about to be hit by a car.