Give me $500 and I will fix the problem
On Monday there was a story here in Australia about traffic lights being installed in the pavement to reduce the risk of pedestrians crossing the road against the lights because they were looking down at their mobile phone screens: (Lights installed in Melbourne footpath to help distracted pedestrians cross safely)
source: ABC
Apart from the chorus of responses that people who were hit by cars when crossing against the light while looking at their phones is Darwinian evolution in action what struck me was the insane cost at $100,000 for one intersection. Now some of that cost is for the trial process but it would be enormously expensive to role out across the city. I am always reminded of the lyrics of 21st Century Digital Boy when I see this sort of stuff happening:
‘Cause I’m a twenty-first century digital boy
I don’t know how to live but I got a lot of toys
Not because of the phones but that we look at technology solutions when simple ones will do. Now some will argue that we should not be arguing about costs when lives are at risk but the hard truth is that if we spend money on this sort of thing then money is not available to spend on other things which may more effectively save lives.
Surely the simple solution here is to paint the approaches to the intersection a bright neon yellow so people who are looking down at know they are approaching an intersection and look up at the traffic lights, which are already there! This works for bikes on bike paths approaching risk areas. I have just come back from the World Science Fair in Brisbane where we walked in to South Bank from Milton each day and the bike paths/walking areas are great:
Source: Wikimedia Commons
This issue is symptomatic of a wider problem across the community. As a futurist I talk to lots of people about technology, its impacts, and its capacity to change the way we live and work. However my constant refrain is if you lead a strategy with “shiny new toy syndrome” you will almost certainly fail.
futuristpaul.com 
