Our intended goal is to keep people from jaywalking, and as a result, promote safety in congested intersections. The crosswalk on Forbes Avenue is a perfect example of a place to watch pedestrian behavior. When people intend to cross the street, they’re checking for three factors to allow them to do so - a red traffic light, the crosswalk sound, and the stop hand on the crosswalk sign. Currently, there is a prevalent gap in time between the sound cutoff, when the stop hand on the traffic light turns solid, and when the traffic light turns green.If we were to make the stop hand and crosswalk sound cohesive, this would allow people a better understanding of when to cross the street, and when to not do so.
Our plan is to not only change how the crosswalk signal sounds, but to also change how the stop hand reacts to the crosswalk signal. We believe that if we were to replace the beep-boop sound with notes that speed up to let the pedestrians know when the crossing time is running out, their behavior would change. People generally conform to the beat of music, so if the notes on the crosswalk speed up to indicate that they’re running out of time, a pedestrian would understand whether they should cross quickly or wait until the next light. One major example of this is the classic tune on Jeopardy which signals the elapsing of a contestant's time. Similarly, if we were to replace the stop hand with-- or add to it-- a countdown clock that is synced with the notes, this would prevent several people from jaywalking, thus increasing their chances of crossing the street safely.
Jacob Slone
