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Conceptual Traffic Light Promotes Clearer Communication

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Russian industrial designer Evgeny Arinin has redesigned the traffic light to be a clearer source of communication for drivers.
Photo: Evgeny Arinin

The traffic light, with its simple red, yellow, and green configuration, has been upgraded by Russian industrial designer Evgeny Arinin. Although Arinin respects the longevity of the current traffic light’s design, he yearned for a traffic light that could clearly convey instructions to drivers and pedestrians.

According to Wired.com writer Margaret Rhodes, Arinin’s traffic light is “an LED display that uses its shape, big arrows, and punchy icons to loudly articulate the rules of the road.”

Although Arinin’s re-imagined traffic light is still in the conceptual stage, according to Rhodes it highlights what’s not working with the current 105-year-old traffic light model, namely that it needs a complex network of signs to properly warn drivers of dangers or of what to do depending on road construction or road conditions.

According to Rhodes, Arinin’s traffic lights feature blinders around the edges so as not to confuse other drivers at an intersection and are larger in scale than regular traffic lights.

“Arinin’s concepts combine information that you would typically find on two or more signs into one, intuitive signal. Each sign is shaped like the intersection in which it appears; a four-way junction gets a cross-shaped (read: four-way) sign. If traffic laws say you can turn right but can’t go straight, the sign will show a green arrow curving right, with a glaring block of red in the bar pointing upwards. It practically gestures at what to do,” reports Rhodes who notes that Arinin’s conception is a finalist in this year’s Lexus Design Awards.

Even though Arinin’s conceptual traffic light is impressive and potentially award-winning, it would need to fulfill current standards of legibility including visual acuity before it could be a replacement possibility for current traffic lights, according to Rhodes.

News Source: Wired