South Korea is one of the countries with the highest smartphone penetration rate in the world, and its level of digitalization among the population ranks among the highest in the world. The widespread use of smart devices has given rise to a specific social group – Smombie (smartphone zombies), also known as the phone-holding crowd.
This group of people constantly lower their heads to stare at their mobile phone screens while walking, completely focusing their vision on the device in their hands and ignoring the traffic environment on the road. Traditional overhead traffic signal lights are set above the pedestrians’ line of sight and cannot enter the field of vision of the phone-holding crowd, forming a fatal visual blind spot.
This phenomenon directly leads to frequent traffic accidents at pedestrian crossings in South Korean cities, especially at intersections in areas with a high concentration of young people, where accidents caused by distracted walking have been increasing year by year, becoming a core pain point in the traffic governance of smart cities.
To address this problem, Seoul, Incheon, and other smart cities in South Korea have implemented innovative solutions – smart solar road studs. The product breaks away from the traditional mode of installing traffic signals at high altitudes and lowers the traffic warning signals to the pedestrian’s line of sight, solving the visual blind spot problem of the phone-holding crowd from a dimensional perspective, and strengthening the city’s pedestrian safety defense line.
This implementation project mainly covers two major core smart urban areas in South Korea, namely the Gangnam District of Seoul and the Songdo Smart New Town of Incheon. It is a benchmark project for the upgrade of smart city traffic in South Korea. Currently, nearly 1,200 ground solar road studs have been installed in 25 administrative districts of Seoul, with the Gangnam District having the largest number of installations, reaching 138, ranking first in the city.
The project precisely focuses on high-risk pedestrian sections, addressing safety hazards in frequent accident scenarios. The core application scenarios are divided into three categories:
The project uses intelligent synchronous solar road studs throughout, different from ordinary reflective road studs, which can be linked in real time with municipal pedestrian walkway signal lights to achieve synchronous signal switching and warning, truly realizing intelligent control of ground traffic signals.
Before the large-scale implementation of solar road studs, the South Korean municipal department tried various traditional traffic optimization solutions, but none could completely solve the safety problem of the phone-holding crowd. The core pain points were concentrated in three aspects.
Traditional traffic lights are hung at the high point of the intersection, adapting to the habit of pedestrians looking up and seeing straight ahead. However, the phone-holding crowd’s eyes constantly shift downward, completely unable to catch the changes in the high-altitude traffic lights, even if the traffic lights switch normally, they cannot play a warning role, forming an irreversible visual blind spot.
Traditional pedestrian crossings rely on reflective paint markings to warn pedestrians and vehicles. In rainy, foggy, and night-time backlighting scenarios, the reflective effect of the road markings significantly decreases, making the markings blurry.
Pedestrians cannot see the pedestrian boundaries clearly, and drivers cannot accurately identify the lanes and pedestrian areas, significantly increasing the accident rate at intersections.
Korea has extremely high requirements for urban appearance and road integrity. Traditional ground traffic lighting facilities require road-breaking wiring and pre-buried lines, with long construction periods and severe damage to the road surface.
At the same time, the materials, labor, and later maintenance costs of the wiring-based construction are high, with a relatively high overall project investment cost, making it difficult to promote the large-scale implementation in urban areas.
In response to the specific pain points of urban traffic in South Korea, the implemented smart solar road studs have been precisely optimized in four dimensions: technology, design, energy consumption, and adaptability. They perfectly fit the standards and municipal requirements of South Korea’s smart city construction, and their core advantages are as follows.
This solar road stud is equipped with an intelligent sensing module and a linked program, which can be synchronized and linked with municipal pedestrian traffic lights in real time. During red light periods, the smart solar road stud flashes frequently to warn of prohibited passage, and during green light periods, it remains constantly lit or flashes at a low frequency to indicate safe passage.
The lights are placed within the field of vision of pedestrians’ peripheral vision, allowing them to accurately capture signal changes without having to look up, completely solving the problem of visual blind spots caused by elevated traffic lights, and adapting to the walking habits of smartphone users.
The product adopts an ultra-thin embedded structural design, with the ground height being less than 5mm, completely avoiding potential hazards from road obstacles.
Whether it is pedestrians wearing high heels, wheelchair users, or citizens pushing baby strollers, they can pass through without obstacles. At the same time, the product has excellent load-bearing performance, capable of withstanding frequent crushing from private cars and small vehicles, and is suitable for high-frequency traffic scenarios at urban intersections.
The smart solar road studs are equipped with efficient monocrystalline silicon solar panels and large-capacity energy storage batteries. During the day, they autonomously absorb solar energy for charging, and at night, they automatically light up and work, requiring no external power supply or wiring for power supply.
The equipment operates with zero power consumption and zero carbon emissions, fully aligning with the smart city construction concept of South Korea’s government’s green new policy, helping to build a low-carbon transportation system for the city.
The product uses high-quality imported LED bulbs, with high luminous intensity and strong light penetration. Even in rainy nights with water accumulation reflecting light and in hazy weather with low visibility, it can penetrate water vapor and fog to clearly outline the boundaries of pedestrian crosswalks, ensuring safe passage throughout the day.
| Comparison Indicators | Traditional Warning Facilities | Solar Road Studs |
| Headphone User Adaptability | Poor, located in visual blind zones and unable to provide effective warnings | Excellent, illuminated studs are directly visible and well adapted to smartphone users’ line of sight |
| Weather Recognition | Low, visibility is blurred during rainy nights and haze conditions | High, high-brightness LEDs penetrate water vapor and remain effective in all weather conditions |
| Construction Method | Requires road breaking and wiring, resulting in a long construction period and damage to the road surface | No wiring required; embedded installation minimizes road surface damage and shortens construction time |
| Annual Operation and Maintenance Cost | High, frequent wiring maintenance and road marking renovation required; approximately $1,800 per intersection/year | Low, zero wiring and long battery life; annual operation and maintenance cost is less than $300 per intersection |
| Environmental Attributes | Dependent on municipal power supply, with energy loss | Self-sustained solar power supply with zero carbon emissions, aligned with green infrastructure policies |
According to statistics from the Seoul municipal transportation department, the accident rate caused by distracted walking by pedestrians at intersections with installed intelligent solar road studs has decreased by more than 42%.
Among densely populated areas such as school campuses and subway entrances, the reduction in minor collisions and scratches is the most significant. The intuitive warning effect of the ground lights effectively restrains the dangerous behaviors of pedestrians crossing and being distracted while walking, and also reminds vehicles to slow down and avoid.
Unlike hard-handed prohibitions and controls in traffic governance, the solar road studs, by adapting to citizens’ living habits to optimize safety facilities, are called “the most humanized smart traffic renovation” by South Korean citizens.
Many parents of students and office workers have praised it, believing that this facility combines intelligence and practicality, preserving citizens’ daily use of mobile phones while securing travel safety at the hardware level, significantly enhancing the warmth of the smart city.
Before the implementation of this project, solar road studs were mostly used on remote highways and rural roads, only for simple road guidance. The on-ground cases in Seoul and Incheon of South Korea have successfully introduced solar-powered road studs into the core areas of high-density urban regions, proving their core value in the safety management of pedestrians in smart cities and providing a replicable and implementable traffic upgrade solution for similar high-density urban areas worldwide.
The core of a smart city is never the mere accumulation of cold technology, but the upgrade of details based on people-oriented principles. Traditional traffic facilities focus on “the line of sight ahead”, while smart solar road studs complete the “safety underfoot”.
In response to the new traffic hazards brought about by the widespread use of smartphones, South Korea did not enforce restrictions on citizens’ behavior but instead upgraded the infrastructure intelligently to adapt to the habits of the general public.
The core advantages of ultra-thin embedded design, intelligent synchronous warning, and zero-carbon energy conservation have made the small solar road studs become the key facilities for safeguarding the safety of pedestrians in the city. This successful case also provides a low-cost, high-efficiency, green and sustainable new idea for global high-density cities to solve the traffic problem of “cellphone addicts”, and to upgrade the smart traffic and green infrastructure of the city!
Are you building your smart city project? Do you want to upgrade the pedestrian safety system at intersections at a low cost and reduce the accident rate of distracted walking?
Click to learn about LIGHTWAY’s customized intelligent pedestrian safety solar road studs solution, which is compatible with all scenarios such as urban business districts, campuses, subway entrances, and residential areas, making every pedestrian crossing “smart” and safe, and helping to upgrade the smart traffic and green infrastructure of the city!
