Fake Speed Bumps
| July 2nd, 2008I love this idea. From Boing Boing:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is testing faux speed bumps that are painted on the road. Their substance is merely an optical illusion, but apparently they slow people down. Until they realize the bumps are two dimensional anyway. From the Associated Press:
The 3-D markings are appealing because, at $60 to $80 each, they cost a fraction of real speed bumps (which can run $1,000 to $1,500) and require little maintenance, said Richard Simon, deputy regional administrator for the highway safety administration.On one of three streets tested in the Phoenix trial, the percentage of drivers who obeyed the 25 mph speed limit nearly doubled. But the effect wore off after a few months.
“Initially they were great,” said the Phoenix Police traffic coordinator, Officer Terry Sills. “Until people found out what they were.”
It seems to me that all they need is to manufacture a few portable, three-dimensional speed bumps, modeled to look like the fake speed bumps. The real bumps can be moved from location to location at night, so that drivers would never be quite sure if the speed bump they’re approaching is a real one or a painted one.
Plus, think of how funny it would be when drivers first discovered that some real bumps had been added into the mix.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:13 am
Real or fake, it looks dangerous to me.
The bumps create a temporary illusion of a large obstacle in the road, which draws the drivers attention from real hazards which may then be missed.
This comment was written by Daran.Report this comment to the moderators
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:38 am
@Daran - that was my first reaction as well. Local drivers will get used to blowing through these things, and will create a real problem when they apply that skill to blowing through similar-looking real-world objects.
This comment was written by Silenced is Foo.Report this comment to the moderators
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:56 am
From what I’ve seen with 3-d chalk art, that illusion will only work in one direction–approached from the other direction, it wouldn’t look like anything substantial (or even intelligible). So I suspect these would only work on one-way streets. Still interesting, but limited in application.
This comment was written by Penny.Report this comment to the moderators
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:48 am
Yes, teaching the driving population that the roads department lies and plays psychological tricks on them is a sure route to a safer road environment.
This comment was written by Robert.Report this comment to the moderators
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:47 pm
My local council have found a very effective way to calm traffic. They’ve stopped maintaining the roads. Large numbers of speedbumps have appeared spontaneously and it’s not possible to drive faster than 20MPH anywhere.
This comment was written by Daran.Report this comment to the moderators
July 8th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
While i agree with robert that it would be @#(@**#$ evil to do this, the psychology of gambling suggests that expectation of a punishment / reward will lead to an incredibly long-lasting behavior if the punishment / reward is randomly applied.
This comment was written by Indy.Report this comment to the moderators