Speed bumps are so last century. That’s why the Canadian city of Vancouver is experimenting with a speed control solution that uses an optical illusion to trick you into thinking there is a child in the road. I’m sure that will slow people down and give some people heart attacks too.
The program is being piloted near École Pauline Johnson Elementary School, where they use a very lifelike painted optical illusion that looks like a little girl chasing a ball into traffic.
Thanks for the minor coronary Vancouver and the whiplash from slamming on my brakes.
[New Launches]
TAGS:
Canada, children, illusions, Speed Bumps, speeding
As a professional transportation engineer, this is probably the stupidest thing that I have ever seen, even as a temporary measure.
From the Ontario Traffic Manual Book 8 – Warning Signs:
“Warning signs are intended to provide advance notice to road users about unexpected and potentially dangerous conditions on or near the road. The conditions to which warning signs apply typically require that road users exercise caution, and may require that drivers slow down, in order to travel safely in the presence of a hazard.
In order to retain the public credibility of all traffic control devices, consistency in application is necessary. Insufficient warning signing may leave road users unprepared for encountering hazards, while over-signing or exaggerated signing may result in complacency. It is important, therefore, that warning signs accurately convey the severity of the hazard about which they are warning.”
Nowhere does it suggest that a warning sign should attempt to shock or surprise drivers into lower speeds. This sign simply adds to the “visual noise” of the roadway, distracting from real hazards.
A few scenarios immediately come to mind when a driver encounters the sign, all of which are undesirable.
1. A distracted driver observes the sign with insufficient time to slow down and engages in dangerous evasive maneuvers potentially endangering other motorists or pedestrians around him or her.
2. Drivers who have not encountered the sign slow down when they see the sign, and then speed up again (likely in an annoyed state) after they realize that it is just an illusion, and not an actual child.
3. Drivers who have already encountered the sign ignore the sign and continue to drive at their original speed, becoming accustomed to not slowing down for the image of a child on the roadway.
The fact that no ‘erratic’ driving behavior has been observed so far is essentially meaningless. It only takes one driver who causes some kind of a collision to create a negative impact that was not there before. The risk introduced by this pavement marking should be completely unacceptable given the virtually non-existent benefit.
This is just a publicity stunt which will have no lasting effect on driver behavior or speeds on any roads. It is well understood and substantiated by research that the only way to safely change driver speeds for the long-term is to change the perception and geometry of the roadway (e.g. streetscaping, narrowed lanes, speed bumps/humps/tables, bumpouts/chicanes, and/or additional consistent long-term enforcement, etc.).
There is nothing wrong with trying to bring public attention and education to the very real issue of motor vehicle fatalities and pedestrian safety especially as it relates to children. However, there are better ways to do it without increasing the risk to drivers on the road today.
How long before drivers get used to these pictures, and run over an actual child, thinking it was a painting? These things will make the feeling of driving over children normal (you can’t drive around the painting)