Smart traffic light system for increasing the pedestrian safety

Smart traffic lights are the main component of smart city lighting for providing its sustainability. In combination with new technologies that allow saving energy and using intelligent lighting control, the best performance can be achieved. Creating safe conditions for all road users is the key to preserving their health and reducing the number of traffic accidents on the roads. Unfortunately, this cannot guarantee safety for pedestrians when crossing a wide high-speed and busy road or waiting in the zone of a pedestrian refuge island (PRI). The most applied construction of a refuge island in modern cities consists of traffic lights and small concrete limiters nearby both sides of a PRI or two metal bollards without traffic lights. Such type of PRIs cannot defend the pedestrians from vehicle accidents in case of rapid car movement towards the island zone because of destruction or unavailable speed and direction of vehicle. The probability of accident with a pedestrian victim is higher at night, that is why the application of metal bollard without lighting cannot provide enough of its visibility for drivers at dusk or later in the evening. Based on the review of studies, an optical system of bollards, which are on the market and used for traffic management, is not considered in any work. Therefore, to improve the visibility of the bollard, a design of the bollard with a fundamentally new optical system is proposed. Based on the aforementioned grounds, the purpose of this paper is the consideration of ways to increasing the safety for PRIs construction in a smart city. This problem can be solved by using a bollard with a lighting block for its detection by drivers given limited visibility in the evening. In the paper, the construction of a PRI with a bollard, with an improved optical block with low-powered LEDs, has been suggested and analyzed.