new canadian "speed bump"

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E_SolSi

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Canada unveils new speed bump: optical illusion of a child | The Upshot Yahoo! News - Yahoo! News

Canada unveils new speed bump: optical illusion of a child

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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."

You have to wonder if the designers of the "speed bump of the future" considered that drivers might become conditioned to disregard Pavement Patty and her imaginary cohorts, creating something similar to a "boy who cried wolf" effect. Couldn't such conditioning reduce drivers' caution if a real child should cross their path?

Asked whether confusing and/or tricking drivers with such images might create such unintended hazards, David Dunne of the British Columbia Automobile Association Traffic Safety Foundation said that pedestrians need to be just as alert as drivers.

"People tune out. It takes an attitude shift for people to change," Dunne said. "Pedestrians need an attitude shift too. They have to realize that just because they are in a crosswalk doesn't mean they are safe. In fact, most get hit while using crosswalks."

As for drivers who can't process optical illusions, Dunne argued that they have no business on the road in the first place.

"It's a static image," he said. "If a driver can't respond to this appropriately, that person shouldn't be driving, and that's a whole different problem."
this is one of the worst ideas i have ever heard of
this will increase dangers to drivers and children alike
initially this will cause more accidents from people jamming on their brakes and getting rear ended
or swerving to avoid the fake child and damaging their car on the curb/other car/street pole etc... or hit someone who was walking on the sidewalk out of the drivers field of attention
then over time people will become desensitized to the image of a child in the street and will not slow down for it any more... until one day they feel the bump of running over a real child

what the fuck were they thinking??? oh yeah... they werent
worst idea ever
 
then over time people will become desensitized to the image of a child in the street and will not slow down for it any more... until one day they feel the bump of running over a real child

My thoughts on this exactly.
 
klyph. when B and i are running for office, you're def going to be in our cabinet.

lmao.
 
i can't wait to hit a pillar then sue the shit out of the government. it will only take 1 lawsuit before that shit is cancelled.
 
Nothing like having the streets cry wolf.
 
Nothing like having the streets cry wolf.

Exactly what I was thinking. This is a colossally stupid idea. I say we remove all signals, stop signs, crosswalks etc and let the problem take care of itself. No false sense of security when their is nothing to signal "safety"
 
lol. then the smart people would be the ones choosing to stay home for a few days.
then, after a while, most of the idiots will be gone, and the smart ones can come back out.
 
My economics professor used to say that the best way to ensure that everyone drove safely and drastically reduce fatalities and accidents, would be to install a 12'' spike in the steering wheel pointed directly at your heart.

Everyone would drive VERY cautiously if that were the case.
 
This will condition Canadian drivers to run over children because they maybe imaginary.
 
i have a better idea. why not stake life sentence convicts to the ground as speed bumps? that way they die... eventually... and there is no more huge burden on the taxpayers :)
 
i think we are missing the biggest issue here.

they probably spent millions on this technology, testing, and government approvals etc, when they could have made a fucking real cement speed bump with a 50lb bag of concrete from home depot.
 
if they want people to fucking slow down they should just not paint the speed bumps yellow
anyone ever get caught with a regular colored speed bump?
don't even see it until you hit it
that shit makes you slow down real fast and be more cautious
 
i think we are missing the biggest issue here.

they probably spent millions on this technology, testing, and government approvals etc, when they could have made a fucking real cement speed bump with a 50lb bag of concrete from home depot.

But if the Canadian government is anything like ours, theyd hafta sign a multi million dollar contract with a private supplier for X amount of cement per year. Then when the supplier would have trouble meeting X amount per year, there would be more money spent on conferences to find solutions to the problem. The news would then blow the whole problem outa proportion. Finally a war would be waged to aquire more cement, which would only escalate the shortage they began with. The war would drag on for an excess amount of time, and end with no real, tangible victory. And theyd be back at square one, painting children in the middle of busy streets.
 
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