Posted on 09/08/2010 1:23:21 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
Officials in West Vancouver, Canada, apparently aren't satisfied with the driver-slowing properties of traditional speed bumps. On Tuesday, the town unveiled a new way to persuade motorists to ease off the gas pedal in the vicinity of the École Pauline Johnson Elementary School: a 2-D image of a child playing, creating the illusion that the approaching driver will soon blast into a child.
According to Discover magazine, the pavement painting appears to rise up as the driver gets closer to it, reaching full 3-D realism at around 100 feet: "Its designers created the image to give drivers who travel at the street's recommended 18 miles per hour (30 km per hour) enough time to stop before hitting Pavement Patty -- acknowledging the spectacle before they continue to safely roll over her."
You have to wonder if the designers of the "speed bump of the future" considered that drivers might become conditioned to disregard Pavement Patty and her imaginary cohorts, creating something similar to a "boy who cried wolf" effect. Couldn't such conditioning reduce drivers' caution if a real child should cross their path?
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Amazingly stupid.
That would scare me to death. I’d slam on the brakes and get rear-ended.
http://www.ridelust.com/stereoscopic-parking-garage-im-freaking-out-dude/
Does Patty glow in the dark? Whole concept seems sick to me.
As the author says, it’s likely drivers will learn to ignore it and real children will die.
Irritating.
great isea! Give drivers a heart attack.
It really is, isn't it? Breathtaking.
That picture must not have been taken from the exact right angle. The feet and the ball appear too big.
Not only that; it may cause drivers to become inured to the sight of a child in the middle of the street.
Great way to train the brain that children are optical illusions.
Oh!...That’s brilliant!.....It will probably cause more accidents than it prevents...Socialists are idiots!!!
that’s probably what will happen to a lot of people.
It will probably give some senior citizen a heart attack!
“As the author says, it’s likely drivers will learn to ignore it and real children will die.”
That was my first thought too.
/johnny
It's amazing all that can be done with just "a $15,000 safety program".
Yep, drivers will ignore them and hear a ‘blip - bonk’.
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