A Human-Centred Technology Approach to Pedestrian Safety in Smart Cities

Abstract

Road safety, and in particular pedestrian safety, represents a growing global concern as urban populations continue to rise and age. Motorists and passengers have benefited from technological improvements for their safety, but pedestrian safety remains largely dependent on simple traffic lights, physical interventions in the built environment, and the behaviour of drivers. At the same time, advancements in smart technologies offer opportunities for improving the safety of pedestrians in cities. The chapter describes how such emerging opportunities can be identified through a human-centred technology approach, which combines (a) human-computer interaction (HCI) research as a reference point to better understand what is technologically possible and (b) human-centred methods to gain insights about people’s lived experiences. The chapter demonstrates this approach by linking current pedestrian safety solutions to HCI research, presenting an online ethnographic study of user comments, and developing avenues for smart technology interventions to improve pedestrian safety in cities. Beyond pedestrian safety, the chapter presents recommendations for how to implement a human-centred technology approach in future smart city initiatives.