This Sand Glass LED traffic light concept is a very elegant and clever piece of design. Simple ideas are often the hardest to improve upon as you don’t want to muddy the concept with too many additions. However designer Thanva Tivawon has done a great job at improving the usability of traffic lights whilst keeping them simple, a quick glance still tells you the most important message, to stop or go, but look a little longer and the familiar hour glass iconography provides more detail. Genius!
I see two minor issues, how do you know if it’s a ready or prepare to stop state if you’ve not seen the previous colour and will the hurry up state cause accidents and people accelerate towards the lights in order to make it through in time?
1 response so far ↓
1 Adam Appleby // Feb 1, 2012 at 9:03
I think the idea is a great one, and agree with the comment about the “hurry up” mode. But it’s only the people that are waiting at a red light that get impatient. If the red light counts down but the amber and green stay full (with no hour glass function) it would be just fine. If the lights are green and the traffic is flowing, drivers are happy.
The same principle has been applied to pedestrian crossings abroad, letting them know how long before they can cross and how much time they have before stopping and it works really well.
I would love to see this idea rolled out in the UK.
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