A Miracle That Runs
In the autumn of 2019, a tourist from Tokyo suddenly came to a halt at the intersection near Zhongxiao Fuxing Station in Taipei. She pulled out her phone and frantically began recording the pedestrian signal, her eyes filled with disbelief. Through her lens, a small green figure was crossing the street at a brisk pace — and when the countdown timer hit ten seconds, the figure broke into a full sprint. Back in her hometown of Tokyo, and indeed anywhere else in the world, nothing like this had ever been seen.
What this tourist did not know was that she was witnessing a miracle born in Taiwan. Twenty-five years earlier, just a short distance from where she stood, at the intersection of Songzhi Road and Shoushou Road, the world's first animated pedestrian signal quietly lit up — forever changing the world's imagination of what a traffic signal could be.
From Static to Dynamic: A Revolution
The story begins in 1961 in East Germany. Traffic psychologist Karl Peglau introduced the classic pedestrian signal design in East Berlin — a hat-wearing green man signifying "walk" and a red man with outstretched arms signifying "don't walk." This design laid the foundation for the modern pedestrian signal, but for nearly four decades afterward, the little green man around the world remained frozen in place.
The turning point came in 1998 in Taipei. The Taipei City Department of Transportation decided to add a countdown timer to pedestrian signals. After reviewing practices from various countries, a bold idea emerged: "If it's going to move, let the whole signal move." Lin Li-yu, then a project lead and now Deputy Director of the Department of Transportation, recalled that the LED industry was still in its infancy at the time — "making both the figure and the numbers animate simultaneously took over a year of R&D and programming."
Curator's Note #1: The Poetry of Technology
In that era, getting an LED display to render both animation and a countdown numeral was an enormous technical challenge. But Taipei's engineers created a miracle — using seven distinct human-figure frames and exploiting the persistence of vision, they made the green man truly come alive. This was not merely a technical breakthrough; it was a revolution in design thinking.
On March 18, 1999, this revolutionary device was officially activated at the intersection of Songzhi Road and Shoushou Road in Taipei. The animation of the green man was filled with humanized details: it began walking at a leisurely pace, shifted to a brisk walk at the 14-second mark, and broke into a running sprint with flashing at the 10-second mark — as if faithfully reproducing the urgency of a pedestrian rushing to cross the street.
From Local Innovation to Global Phenomenon
This deceptively simple innovation quickly captivated the world. Because no private manufacturer had filed for a patent at the time, the United States, Germany, Japan, and other countries sent delegations to Taipei to observe and subsequently adopted the technology. In 2016, Google even featured the running green man on its global homepage Doodle to celebrate the figure's 17th birthday, once again dazzling the world with this beacon of Taiwanese ingenuity.
The green man's influence continued to spread. In 2018, Pingtung County unveiled a "proposal version" of the green man: during the green light, two figures walked hand in hand; during the red light, the red figure knelt down to propose marriage. The idea quickly became an international media sensation. BBC ran the headline "Taiwan's pedestrian signal man has a girlfriend!"; The Daily Telegraph, The Straits Times, and other international outlets raced to cover the story.
Curator's Note #2: The Birth of a Cultural Icon
The reason the green man was able to become a cultural icon lies not only in its technological innovation but in the way it embodies a core trait of Taiwanese culture: infusing warmth and humanity into rigid rules, and weaving playfulness into functional design. It is both practical and endearing, both modern and approachable.
From Function to Symbol: A Metamorphosis
Today, the green man has long transcended its role as a traffic signal, becoming one of Taiwan's most recognizable cultural icons. At major tourist attractions, foreign visitors can be seen making special trips to take photos with the green man; in souvenir shops, merchandise shaped like the green man fills the shelves; on the international stage, the green man is frequently invoked as a symbol of Taiwan's innovative spirit.
This phenomenon reflects a profound cultural shift: how a functional public facility gradually accumulates emotional value through daily use, eventually becoming a vessel for collective memory. The green man has witnessed the daily commutes of the people of Taiwan, the transformation of its cities, and Taiwan's evolution from a manufacturing powerhouse to an innovation-driven nation.
In 2019, Chunghwa Post issued a set of stamps on the theme of intelligent transportation, with the green man featured as one of the designs — formally cementing its place in Taiwanese culture. From a utilitarian street-level tool to a national-level cultural icon, the green man completed a magnificent metamorphosis.
Curator's Note #3: The Democratization of Innovation
The story of the green man tells us that the best innovations often come from paying attention to and improving the details of everyday life. It was not the product of a high-tech laboratory but grew out of a simple aspiration: "to make crossing the street safer and more enjoyable for pedestrians." This spirit of democratized innovation is the true source of Taiwan's soft power.
2026: The Green Man No Longer Runs
On March 12, 2026, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced the complete removal of the "brisk walk" animation from the green man signal. Minister Wu Dong-liang stated that the purpose of the removal was "to avoid giving pedestrians the impression that they need to hurry across the road." The new regulation will affect animated signals across all 19 counties and cities in Taiwan. The green-light flashing function will be retained, but the running animation will no longer appear.
The decision sparked widespread discussion. For many Taiwanese people, the animation of the green man transitioning from a leisurely walk to a sprint was the most familiar visual rhythm of their daily commute. A design that first lit up at the Songzhi Road intersection in 1999 has, 27 years later, entered the history books.
From the original seven-frame animation, to the singing version, the proposal version, the pandemic-prevention version, to the Google homepage Doodle and the Chunghwa Post commemorative stamp, the green man has carried the Taiwanese people's imagination of public space through every iteration. The urban legend that "the green man trips and falls" has long been woven into internet culture, becoming part of the island's collective memory.
The running animation may disappear, but the green man's status as a cultural icon of Taiwan will not change. It reminds us that the most internationally influential cultural exports often emerge from innovations closest to everyday life.
References
- Taiwan Streetscape Becomes a World First! Taiwan's Pride — the "Animated Walking Green Man Signal" — Turns 25 - United Daily News
- Animated Pedestrian Signal - Wikipedia
- Pingtung's "Proposal Version" Green Man Goes International — How the Pedestrian Signal Became "Taiwan's Pride" - The News Lens
- Easter Egg or Malfunction? Taiwan's Pioneering Walking Green Man Trips Once Every 20,000 Steps? - Future City
- This Day in History — March 18: The Running "Green Man" Comes of Age! - Storm Media
- Taiwan's Original Animated Green Man + Countdown Timer - National Immigration Agency Digital Information Network
- Traffic Signal Green Man's 17th Birthday - Google Doodle
- The Green Man Takes Center Stage — Taiwan Intelligent Transportation Construction Stamps Issued on the 25th - United Daily News
- Pedestrian Signal "Brisk Walk" Animation to Become History - Central News Agency (2026)