South Korea trials wireless seat alerts for pregnant train travellers Bluetooth Pink Light <br />A bluetooth system that alerts underground train users to give up their seats for pregnant travellers has been trialled in South Korea. <br />The Pink Light campaign was tested by 500 pregnant women in the city of Busan over a five-day period. <br />The women carried sensors that activated pink lights by priority seats on the Busan-Gimhae Light Rail service. <br />However some might be embarrassed by the extra attention, said podcaster and tech journalist Ellie Gibson. <br />The sensors have six months of battery life and must be carried outside a bag for maximum signal strength, although they are not waterproof, the Pink Light website (in Korean) says. <br />The project was a collaboration between the city council and local businesses. <br />"Consideration for pregnant women should prevail and they should be able to use public transportation more easily and conveniently with this policy," said Suh Byung-soo, Busan's mayor. <br />"Women should be able to use city facilities easily even when they are expecting." <br />Many pregnant women report difficulties getting seats on public transport, while passengers say they can't always tell whether a woman is pregnant and don't want to cause offence. <br />In the UK, Transport for London offers a free pin badge to pregnant travellers, which reads "Baby on board". <br />The Pink Light campaign "feels a bit like an overly complicated solution to a simple problem," said Ms Gibson, from parenting podcast Scummy Mummies. <br />"I found the level of attention embarrassing when I wore the 'Baby on board' badge - I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel with pink lights going off when I got on a train."
