Saturday 11 September 2010

Optical Illusion To Slow Down Drivers

Marking the back to school term, Preventable (a traffic safety organization from Canada) together with the District of West Vancouver have launched an optical illusion geared to making drivers slow down at high-risk intersections.

The optical illusion of an illustrated girl chasing a ball has been placed on a road in Vancouver. There are signs leading up to it saying 'you're probably not expecting kids to run out on the road' to prepare drivers.

6 comment(s):

Anonymous said...

I don't think that this is a good idea. What happens when you've seen many of these many times... and a REAL kid comes along? You can only cry "wolf" so many times

Anonymous said...

I agree that it's a bad, and here is another reason...I can imagine a distracted driver noticing the "child" at the last second and panicking...and having an accident.

Dr. Cheryl Carvajal said...

This freaks me out, for the two reasons given above.

I understand they want to bring the seriousness of this home, but it is too likely to end badly.

St0n3henge said...

This is a very bad idea. People will hit the brakes or swerve and this will cause accidents. Just because you know how to put an optical illusion in a road doesn't mean you should.

Jeff said...

I live near there. It's in West Vancouver, one of the the oldest cities demographically in Canada; and home to possibly the most sedate and slow motorists on the continent. You see more blue hair on the streets there than at a rave.

That location is immediately after a stop sign and a pedestrian crosswalk; and in the middle of a school zone, with a 30kmh speed limit. Note the school on the right hand side.

Trust me, no one is going to "hit their brakes" or swerve any-where.

Anonymous said...

The problem with using this illusion is that these sorts of image only really work from one angle. So the approaching driver will see the smudge of colour on the road gradually resolve into a child.

It won't surprise anybody or make them brake or swerve. And it won't work either. A whole lot of effort for nothing.

Where it could prove dangerous is that some driver could be paying attention to the image instead of paying attention to their driving. "Hey look at that, it's really neat!" BANG!