January 18, 2021

Not-So Smart Crosswalks


Not-So Smart Crosswalks
These stripes (or "zebras" as they are called in Russian) look more like a maze than a path. Anonymous user, the community group "In Salekhard.ru" on VKontakte 

Anyone who has walked through busy Russian streets (or has even just seen one of those crazy Russian dashcam videos online) can appreciate how useful "Smart Crosswalks" could be. Unfortunately, ideas like this sometimes don't work out the way they were intended.

Salekhard, a city in Russia’s Far North, has officially begun to implement new “Smart Crosswalks” in its streets, although with lackluster results.

While the creators had hoped to develop a tool that would make crossing the street at night or in icy conditions safer and easier, it seems to have only angered one anonymous Salekhard resident, who took to popular Russian social media site VKontakte to publish an impassioned complaint about the initiative. It seems that the projectors just can’t seem to display the stripes in a straight path, and (perhaps more importantly) the warning lights often don’t even function properly. 

These devices work by projecting the classic yellow and white stripes on the pavement as well as by using a motion sensor, video camera, and LED sign to detect and signal the presence of pedestrians.

After this public outcry, it seems that city officials have taken notice and have made a resolve to fix the situation. But in the meantime, we would just stick to using the pedestrian underpass tunnels.   

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955