I find this somewhat disturbing. For starters, aren’t there enough things that demand my attention while I’m driving? Now I have to worry about the highway department playing with my head. Is that a real girl chasing a ball into the street, or just the latest in trompe l’oeil traffic control? (And I can’t really afford to get the answer to that question wrong, can I.)
But the real problem is mentioned in the article. Do we, as a society, want drivers to become accustomed to running over little girls? The guy from the Traffic Safety Foundation didn’t even try to answer.
So, what do you think, Dopers; all’s fair in love and school zones, or too clever by half?
So instead of slowing down for a known obstacle, you’ll get random cars slamming on the brakes thinking a small child is playing ball in a parking garage? A flawless plan.
And the people that are up to their tricks and are used to seeing the little girl will not slow down at all. Maybe not slow down for a real 3d girl either. Brilliant.
It might work once, the first time people see it, from that point on they know it is fake and that they don’t need to slow down at all. It’s a lame idea in my opinion.
The designers seem to blithely disregard the fact that a driver might also swerve to avoid the child and possibly strike another car, a tree, or someone in thier yard on a sidewalk. They say that ‘pedestrians have a duty to keep a look out too’. When I’m crossing the street sure but not when I’m walking down the side walk and some moron doing 45 mph swerves to miss this optical illusion looses control when he hits the curb and hits me on the side walk. I hope this never makes it past the planning stages. Cool effect though.
Yeah, it’s like a traffic safety version of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. It may get your attention once or twice but once you get used to seeing it then it very well might not work in a situation where you need it to.
I thought this thread was going to be about the things they’ve been installing around town lately. They are called speed humpsand are wide flat bumps in the road. The problem I have with them is that even though they are well-marked, it’s hard to tell that the surface is actually elevated - until you go driving over it a little too fast and it just about launches you into the air.
I agree. While the static image is distinct in appearance from an actual child, it could easily cause a panicky reaction for a driver who is drunk, on certain kinds of “medication” (legal and otherwise) or simply very distracted (mobile phone users, even when hands-free is used).
And as already said, it may have the “cry wolf” effect. Especially with drivers in the above listed conditions.
Here’s a thought. Why not have an optical illusion… of a regular speed-bump? (They could alternate with real ones.)
Truly dreadful idea, for all the reasons already mentioned.
I thought, before opening, that this was going to be about the “second generation” of speed bumps we’re seeing around here, now. Instead of the rather gentle, wide slope of the kind of speed hump Shoeless linked to (which we’ve had here for a very long time), they’re putting in these high but not very wide appliances made of metal, which are a bitch on the underside of my car. Like this, only not so visibly painted, because they’re all or mostly black.
Your first link won’t come up where I sit, in a public library. And that’s probably only because the URL has “lust” in it. I’ll have to try at a college library.
I had no such problem bringing up the images in your second link… For some reason I keep thinking about old Road Runner cartoons.
Figures.
Ouch, that’s hard on the eyes. Something that threatening could cause panic stops, I’d say.
I’ll have to try at a college library.