Ten-year-old invents light-up crosswalks, IBM makes them real

I think we actually have those in some places in California. Not as perfectly as she's describing, but a bunch of LED bumps installed at the edges, which flash when someone's pressed a button.<p>Sensors and bigger stripes would be nice.<p>(It's a great idea, and especially if she never saw one before, shows a great thought process.)

I've never assumed cars will stop for me if I step into a crosswalk, nor do I ever assume they see me.<p>I simply wait on the edge until the cars stop. If they are stopped, it prevents cars further back from going into the crosswalk.<p>It works better than anything else. After all, if I get hit, I get hurt, even if I'm legally in the right. People who blithely step into a crosswalk and assume cars will see and stop are fools.

I am sorry but the idea is not new at all.<p><a href="http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/air-zebra/" rel="nofollow">http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/air-zebra/</a> And the implementation is in the works - laws being passed to make those required.

Cool idea, I like that they didn't choose a random product to try an market, but an actual real world application. As a driver more than a walking pedestrian, I think these light-ups would be awesome on the road. Even during the day. I consider myself to be a good driver, but this would definitely help out.<p>I have to add that generally a 10 year old is not going to give you the next big app idea. 10 year olds will have no more creative ideas than you or me. But just like the lottery, it could happen.

Aww damn it! This was my idea :(<p>I guess I'm not the only one to think of this. My plan was piezoelectric crystals and some sort of electro-luminescent plastic or possibly solar charged. Also for the road lines since rain makes them hard to see, age dims the paint and snow cover them up pretty bad.<p>The only problem is I live in a winter environment and plows scrape the hell out of the roads it would have to be embedded in the road.

While looking cool, it seems to me like this catches a pedestrian's attention more than the one of the drivers. If pedestrians are distracted from traffic right before crossing, this would make crosswalks less safe.<p>It should be more useful (but more expensive) to lighten up the actual crosswalk signs on the road as soon as pedestrians are approaching.

I believe outside San francisco city hall we have a crosswalk which lights up. I believe it with with LEDs that flash. I like this on way better.<p>Does it turn off immediately when there is no one in the crosswalk?

Couldn't some kind of luminescent paint be utilized instead?

What an incredibly "out of the box" idea we have here. Sorry, I don't want to sound mean, but its a sad state of affairs when 10 year olds grow up fully accustomed to a world where most public space is taken up by two ton combustion engines. It cuts out all the vital critical thinking.<p>The question shouldn't be "how can we make crosswalks safer for pedestrians" but "why are there cars and roads where pedestrians walk". Otherwise we end up with things like the "bicycle lane".