CITY PUTS TRAFFIC LIGHTS IN SIDEWALK TO GET ATTENTION OF PEOPLE ON PHONE

Officials in the German city of Augsburg have come up with a solution for those annoying pedestrians who are too busy looking at their smartphones to pay attention to traffic lights.

Augsburg has installed new traffic lights embedded in the sidewalk — so that pedestrians constantly looking down at their phones won’t miss them.

The idea came after a 15-year-old girl was killed by a streetcar. According to police reports, she was distracted by her smartphone as she crossed the tracks.

In 2014, the Chinese city of Chongqing experimented with a 50-metre stretch of sidewalk where pedestrians had to choose between walking on a normal lane and one for people walking and staring at their devices.