NASHVILLE TENN. (WTVF) — Walking across the street shouldn't be a matter of life and death, but in Davidson County last year, 28 people never made it to the other side. Now, a former Nashville Department of Transportation traffic safety leader has designed a device that could help save lives by literally lighting the way to safety.
Brian Baker spent more than three decades behind Nashville's traffic signals as an operations manager with the Nashville Department of Transportation. For 32 years, he oversaw traffic signals across Davidson County, but what he kept seeing were crosswalks covered by darkness.
"I was like, man, if we could put a light that would work with the pedestrian signal, then we could probably save these citizens' lives," Baker said.
Baker says the issue isn't isolated — it's nationwide. He works with Vision Zero and sees the numbers every week showing pedestrian fatalities.
After seeing a recent story about the number of pedestrians killed on a Nashville roadway, Baker felt compelled to reach out and share his solution.
"I googled the story that y'all had produced, and it was actually a story where someone got ran over," Baker said.
His invention is called Light Up My Crosswalk — a pedestrian-level illumination device designed to work with existing signals.
"The concept is it's a dark crosswalk, and we want to put light on that crosswalk, but you push the button, the push button, whether it has a button or not, it will work with any detection device you want," Baker said.
The device illuminates the crosswalk and stays on steadily the whole time it's activated.
"We don't need light on all the time. We need light on when it's needed. And that's what we're doing with this," Baker said.
Two pilot locations have been in place for about eight months at Abbott Martin and Cross Creek, and Lafayette and Wharf. Baker says the light protects more than just the person crossing.
"It's actually for the driver as much as it's for the pedestrian that's standing on the sidewalk," Baker said.
Baker left his position at the Nashville Department of Transportation to follow his passion for pedestrian safety. He now works with a company in Florida called TCS that manufactures and sells the product.
His goal is to see Light Up My Crosswalk installed across Davidson County, turning more dark intersections into safer crossings. He hopes that sharing his idea after recent pedestrian tragedies will spark even more attention to pedestrian safety.
"If we can put that light on the crosswalk, it's gonna bring light to a dark spot, and we really want to bring that out," Baker said.
This story was reported on-air by journalist Kelsey Gibbs and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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