Light the Crosswalks!

Crosswalks NEED to have light..

Have you ever been coming back from the library late at night or even coming back from your night class and it seems like every time you walk on that crosswalk at the roundabout… there is a car BARELY stopping because they “didn’t see you there?” Well this should fix the problem.. LIGHTS.. woah, genius right? If the crosswalks have light directly down the middle, there is no way anyone can be missed at a roundabout and it also leaves no room for excuses. ;)

STEP #1 EMPATHIZE

The first step to fixing this problem is to see if this is REALLY a problem.. Create a survey and ask questions to students on campus.. Instead of asking questions like “ on average” or “usually”.. lets ask them “ Tell me about the last time…” or even “Have you ever …”

This is also the time when we encourage stories.. so we can get a feeling that we aren’t alone with this problem either.

One more method we can use to see if this problem truly exists is the camera study.. watch students at night walk across the crosswalk and see how many students were unnoticed by drivers, due to the lack of light.

STEP#2 DEFINE:

Although this step may seem a little obvious… you have to define the problem. What did the students say the problem was? How did they say,think, or feel about the problem?

Define the problem: There is not enough light at the crosswalks and at night many drivers can’t see pedestrians that are walking across the crosswalk.

STEP#3 IDEATE:

This is the step where we turn the lightbulb on;) and CREATE !!

This step is where all the ideas should be flowing.. what do we do to fix this problem? How can we solve this problem and what will it take?

What will we do to bring light to the crosswalks? Lets have a testrun..

STEP#4 PROTOTYPE:

Instead of jumping to the funding and trying to figure out how in the world we will get light to a crosswalk.. we can prototype it!

These lights are used for construction and they cost around the $30–40 price range. While that may seem like a lot.. its cheaper than jumping into the “real deal.” Once this light is purchased, it should be set up at one of the crosswalks on the roundabout, considering you would need four to complete the roundabout, you could use this one in one area and see how well it works compared to the other sides of the roundabout which don’t have light.

FINAL STEP: TEST!

The final step in the design thinking process is testing the prototype to see just how this idea is going to work. The crosswalks would need a prototype of a high wattage light bulb to see if it makes pedestrians feel safer at night to walk the crosswalks opposed to pedestrians having to walk around campus at night with no light.