The Future of Pedestrian Crossings?

I was in Glasgow at the weekend and I came across this pedestrian crossing in Argyle Street. Instead of the standard red and green man it has a 3rd display. This is a countdown timer showing the number of seconds until the green man will show again. I felt reassured as I approached the crossing as I knew exactly how long I had to wait. This new crossing will actively discourage people crossing when it is unsafe by giving a simple piece of reassuring information. Such a simple solution but I reckon one we could be seeing a lot more often.