This is what zebra crossings will look like in the future – with light up strips on the road
The zebra crossings of the future will look a lot more colourful than the ones you see today - but it's not just a matter of making the roads look pretty as they could save lives
THE road crossings of the future will take on a much more colourful appearance using LED lights and cameras to save lives.
Clever new tech will light up when a pedestrian is about to cross the road to alert drivers to slow down.
The strips across the front of the zebra crossings will glow red to warn cars someone has stepped on in a bid to slash accidents.
Labelled the "Line of Sight" by design team Mettle Studio, the electronic strips use person-detection technology to spot when a pedestrian is approaching the crossing.
Once pedestrians have crossed the road, the strip will flash in a broken formation.
Drivers are then told they can safely continue along the road when the red light goes out entirely.
Mettle created the strip as part of Direct Line's quest to find a solution for the 7,000 road collisions that occur at pedestrian crossings in Britain each year.
Still in the prototype phase, the design company are now looking to refine the technology to make it easy to install right around the country.
According to the creators, future technology could even interact with autonomous vehicles, reducing the risk of a pedestrian being hit once a human driver has been removed.
Alex Bone, from Mettle, said: “We wanted to design something that would immediately improve road crossing safety and be cost-effective enough so that councils can implement these solutions quickly.
"We recognise that introducing smart crossings has benefits today, but this is just the start - new intelligent infrastructure will communicate directly with autonomous vehicles, offering future ways to increase safety."
The release of the "Line of Sight" follows Direct Line's launch of the more futuristic Smart Crossing late last year.