Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, has joined a group of Chinese cities to target jaywalkers.
At an intersection in the city's East Lake hi-tech development zone, stands a giant door frame with two ropes that are raised or lowered according to the traffic lights.
The ropes stop pedestrians from crossing during a red light and are automatically lifted to allow people to pass on the green light.
The device, named "smart pedestrian obstructer," has a small screen at the top warning the public to watch the traffic lights.
"This intersection has large pedestrian flows. Jaywalkers and vehicles are packed together during rush hour," said Liu Ping, a traffic police officer in the zone.
The device was installed in February. "Previously, police or volunteers had to hold ropes or blow whistles to stop people from crossing during red lights," Liu said.
"According to our calculations, around 90 percent of people obey traffic regulations. With this device, that rate was raised by another five percent," he said.
The device is intended to help increase traffic awareness and eventually it will not be needed, said an official with the city government.
In Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, facial recognition equipment at intersections identifies jaywalkers and shames them by posting their photo on public screens.
The photographs are matched with images in the public security database and fees are imposed on violators.
"Since this new technology has been adopted, the instances of jaywalking have been reduced from 200 to around 20 each day at the major intersection of Jingshi and Shungeng roads. Fewer people are crossing the road during red lights," Li Yong, from Jinan Traffic Police, said in June.
The city has installed facial recognition equipment at 50 major intersections. Each device costs around 100,000 yuan (about 15,000 U.S. dollars).
