A diagonal crossing is newly installed in front of Yonsei University in Seoul on April 6, 2020. (Yonhap)
CHANGWON, May 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The southeastern city of Changwon has announced plans to introduce a new traffic system that automatically extends the ‘walk’ signal when there is a pedestrian crossing the street at a crosswalk.
This system uses artificial intelligence (AI) that recognizes pedestrians at a crosswalk.
When pedestrians fail to cross the intersection within the ‘walk’ signal, the system automatically extends the pedestrian light by about 5 to 10 seconds, enabling children, elderly and disabled people to cross the street safely.
The project comes after the city government launched a review of a pilot program for so-called ‘children protection zones’ on back roads with heavy traffic to protect pedestrians from the danger created by changes in the traffic signal while they are still crossing.
The city government plans to install the automatic pedestrian signal extension system by September after selecting one children protection zone through consultations with the Changwon Jungbu Police Station and the Korea Road Traffic Authority.
After verifying the effectiveness of the new system, the city government will expand the project on a step by step basis.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
