Canada unveils new speed bump: optical illusion of a child

[Joe Wicked]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot...ns-of-children

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."

There is no way people will not be desensitized to kids crossing. Plus not to mention the 1/2 distracted drivers not noticing it until it pops up and slamming on brakes, or swerving and causing wrecks. Bad idea from the beginning.

[392cobra]

But Joe,it makes "the Officials" feel good.

Doesn't that count ?

[Wayne Maybury]

It sounds like a dumb idea to me as people will quickly get used to this.

Several years ago, our town decided to put 4 way stops at almost every intersection. I think their idea was to slow the cars down but what happened instead was that most people no longer came to a full stop. Of course the cops love this as they can set at just about any busy intersection and nail a pile of drivers in no time flat, but that is another story.

The question has to be asked; Is this safer? I don't think it is. I agree that the average speed may be slower as cars are now starting and stopping (OK maybe just slowing down) constantly but few people are actually stopping. This is probably more dangerous than before as the speed limit is only 30 kmh (18mph) in this town. In addition we needlessly burn a lot more gas and wear out our brakes more quickly, neither of which is good for the environment.

Wayne

[rustyBob]

for years now parents have been telling their kids do not play in the streets.....
and now some MORON thinks its a great idea to paint pictures of kids playing
in the streets so drivers will slow down.....what the fu<# are these people thinking ??
so now your kids see the pictures painted on the street and they think its OK to play
in the streets.....what a bunch of MORONS.....

[tcrist]

What is worse it that the drivers are going to get uesd to it and quit slowing down. Then when they hit a real child all he!! is going break loose.