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CrossAware

by 

Tal Stein Tzuk

Design Management and Innovation track

Mentor — 

Dr. Michael Sessler

An interactive safe space for children crossing in crosswalks

This project is about redesigning the crosswalk for children aged 9-13, in order to help them change their behavior upon encountering the crosswalk using an interactive system enabling pedestrians to be active in space and to communicate with drivers. 

Studies found that the main reason for accidents involving pedestrians is problematic behavior on their part, due to what is called “the illusion of safety”: they do not stop and do not look left and right before crossing the road. For pedestrians, the crosswalk is considered a safe space, hence the erroneous assumption that this is “their” territory. In fact, the crosswalk is integral to the road. Moreover drivers have a variety of means to communicate with and warn others – flashing lights, honking, etc., whereas pedestrians remain unable to actively communicate with their environment. 

The system is made up of three parts:

  1. Sidewalk traffic signs – These prepare the pedestrian for the transition from the sidewalk to the road. They are designed to change the pedestrians’ frame of mind and make them realize that they are about to step into the road. 
  2. The buzzer – A trigger from the gaming world, that encourages the pedestrian to stop before stepping into the road. Pressing the buzzer activates a streetlight, which sheds light on the pedestrians, as well as a red light that flashes at the drivers, warning them that pedestrians are crossing the road. 
  3. Replacing the white stripes with icons that convey a statement – As implemented today, the crosswalk stripes are a graphic marker that belongs to the language of road signs used by adult drivers. Similarly to bicycle lanes marked with a bicycle icon that delivers an immediate message, that this road is used by cyclists, I found it appropriate to mark the crosswalk with the icon of a car hitting a pedestrian in order to stress that this is a dangerous area where cars pass by.
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Tal Stein Tzuk

Stein Tzuk has an MDes (2022) and a BFA (2004) in industrial design from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. He has 18 years’ experience in product design and manufacturing. He spent ten of those years as a designer and product manager in an international company, and the last eight years as the owner of a studio for planning and manufacturing professional hard cases and bags for the cinema and video industry. His clients are among the leading companies in the global cinema industry. Stein Tzuk believes that understanding the users and being empathic to their needs are essential for success in product design.

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