Don't Walk - Dance Instead!
by Startacus Admin
Urban safety just got a little less woefully dull and a lot more entertaining for the residents of the Portuguese Capital Lisbon. Instead of being faced with a functional, albeit tedious, static ‘don’t walk’ man, pedestrians at this crossing the centre of the city were treated to a quirky surprise. 
Their little inert man had been replaced by a highly amusing dancing one.
This interactive installation was designed to encourage locals to follow the rules, and wait until the traffic lights had made it safe to cross the street, before doing so.
Nifty trick you might think, but the whole thing reaches a new level of entertainment value when you consider that the little dancing man is no mere algorithm, but displaying the actual movements of other members of the public, who are dancing in front of motion sensor around the corner!
Take a little look at the video - which incidentally has been viewed over 6,000,000 times!
The Dancing Traffic Light!
The user controlled Traffic light that's brightening the day of pedestriansAs much fun as the whole concept might be, it serves a rather more serious purpose. Research (and common sense) will tell you that the most dangerous area for pedestrians in any city is at traffic crossings, simply because people fail to pay attention or misjudge a vehicle’s distance or speed. The dancing traffic light provides an incentive for people to wait until it is safe to cross, a theory which apparently holds up, since organisers observed an 80% increase in the number of people waiting for the little man to turn green.
One might lament the fact that people now need to be etertained by a set of flashing LEDs to stop from walking in front of moving traffic…but we aren't quite sceptical enough for that.
The installation was put together by Smart (as in Smart cars) as part of a genius marketing campaign ahead of the launch of new models of their compact city car.
We love it when people create projects which put playfulness novelty, fun and intrigue back into the urban spaces around us! If you do as well, you might want to check out some of these recent posts:
Interview with Playable City Award Winner - Shadowing
Hello Lamppost - Winner of Playable City Award 2013
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
Submer secures investment to support expansion and growth of its innovative energy and water saving technology.
It may still be a pretty challenging and stressful time for businesses. However, here are a few basic tips that should help...
10 innovative startups on a mission to solve some of the aerospace industry's key challenges are announced as participants in the next Aerospace Xelerated programme.
Creating an alcoholic drink startup? Richard Horwell from Brand Relations shares advice on how to overcome some of the key challenges when doing just that.
JustCarbon on mission to bring cryptocurrency benefits to nature-based solutions, driving increased investment and supporting global carbon market growth.
Chantelle Arneaud from Envestors shares insights on how the startup/scaleup investment sector has fared over the last year and advice on raising money for your business in 2022.
Chasing up money your business is owed? Amanda Hamilton, Chief Executive of the National Association of Licensed Paralegals shares her insights on how to do just that.
The award-winning accelerator Lloyd's Lab is back and on the look-out for innovative startups, scaleups and entrepreneurs for its next cohort, Cohort 8.
RElab selects 9 startups in the areas of industrialised construction, sustainability, supply chain management and digitisation to participate in its latest cohort.
The lowdown on DELLI, the platform connecting passionate, independent food and drink producers with a community eager to try new things.
Published on: 8th October 2014
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- Planet First Partners backs cooling tank technology that reduces data centre climate impact 18th Jan 2022 Submer secures investment to support expansion and growth of its innovative energy and water saving technology.
- Aerospace Xelerated announces the AI and Autonomy startups in its 3rd cohort 14th Jan 2022 10 innovative startups on a mission to solve some of the aerospace industry's key challenges are announced as participants in the next Aerospace Xelerated programme.
- FORMEL Skin Secures €30M Series A to Expand its HealthTech Platform 21st Dec 2021 Major investment for FORMEL Skin to help further develop its dermatology platform, launch new medical treatments and expand into new markets.
- Aerospace Xelerated welcomes GKN Aerospace back as partner for third programme 13th Dec 2021 GKN Aerospace continues as partner for the third cohort of Aerospace Xelerated, the programme focused on startups with innovative solutions in the aerospace sector.
