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OPTICAL ILLUSION OF CHILD GETS DRIVERS TO BRAKE
Analysis by Tracy Staedter
Wed Sep 8, 2010 07:50 AM ET

I don't know about you, but my heart skips a beat if I see a ball suddenly roll out into the street in front of my car. I'm on the brake as fast as I can.

It's a reaction that the British Columbia Automobile Association Traffic Safety Foundation is hoping lots of people have. In an effort to get speeding drivers to slow down, they're painting an image of a child playing with a ball on the road in a school zone. The image is painted in an elongated manner, so that at the right distance, it appears three-dimensional.

It reminds me of those paintings you see from sidewalk artists who can recreate the edge of a cliff or a stairwell.

From far away, this image looks like a smudge. But as the driver gets closer, the form of a child comes into view.

The faster the car, the more suddenly the image will pop up into a three-dimensional view. A nearby sign will read, “You’re probably not expecting kids to run into the road.”

The illusion is being trialed in West Vancouver, Canada, starting September 7, and will be removed after a week of evaluation.

I think this is a great example of how a simple approach could potentially solve a big problem. Safety, or other, challenges don't always require a high-tech solution. (Although I must admit, I would love to see 3D holograms used one day to keep people alert on the roads.) My guess is that the illusion will work well, as long as drivers aren't preoccupied with text messaging.

Still more...

"Pilot Test of Heed The Speed, a Program to Reduce Speeds in Residential Neighborhoods"

"Two types of innovative roadway visual treatments were also tried– 3-D Pavement Markings that created the illusion of raised objects in the roadway and TyregripTM coating that simulated a speed table.

"Speed measurements showed significant reductions in all six neighborhoods and on all 10 test road segments within the neighborhoods except one low-volume street in which speed humps had been installed prior to the start of the program, and 87 percent of the motorists were already at or below the speed limit.

"On all other treated roads, there was a significant increase in drivers complying with the speed limit and significant reductions both in mean speed and in the percentage of vehicles traveling 7 mph or more
above the speed limit.

"The extent of the speed reduction involving thousands of vehicles per day suggests that Heed the Speed programs could be effective in reducing crashes to pedestrians and in limiting the injury severity when a crash does occur."

http://www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/Communication%20&%20Consumer%20Information/Traffic%20Tech%20Publications/Associated%20Files/Traffic_Tech_316.pdf