Categories: Need to know

3-D image of child playing to deter speeders

An optical illusion is aimed to slow drivers down

by macleans.ca on Wednesday, September 8, 2010 9:44am - 0 Comments

It is every driver’s nightmare: a small child suddenly appearing in front of their car. In the parking garage at Pauline Johnson Elementary School in West Vancouver, that child is a trompe-l’oeil on the pavement. The 3-D effect is designed to remind speeders of why they should slow down. Despite fears that drivers may stop suddenly or swerve into actual children, David Duane of the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation told CTV News that the bump is meant to bring attention to driver-caused pedestrian injuries, and that the fake girl should not cause accidents: “It’s a static image. If a driver can’t respond to this appropriately, that person shouldn’t be driving….”

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  • hosertohoosier

    I might be worried that this could desensitize drivers to seeing actual children.

    • bergkamp

      Spot on. It could confuse people – is that a real child I am about to run over or is that a 3-D static image? We need fewer signs and 3-D static images, not more.

      • Stewart_Smith

        Hard to imagine how truly stupid this is. David Duane's apparent arrogance combined with a clear incompetence on the part of the city of West Vancouver may well lead to unnecessary tragedy. This is actually quite an effective way to trap otherwise competent senior drivers. It is fairly well established that with age, the ability to rapidly filter multiple sources of conflicting information and make good decisions is diminished. They compensate by using their experience to effectively avoid being put into those situations which of course hardly helps when a group of well-meaning bozos decide to transform West Vancouver streets into an obstacle course complete with optical illusions.

  • madeyoulook

    Anyone at that elementary school heard of the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf?

    This is insane.

  • true north

    Can anbody else besides me, see so many, many things that could go wrong with this Irresponsible project ? What about the little old Lady with the heart condition on the way to her car and spots this corpse??

  • Geo

    While this gimmick is aimed at all drivers through the school zone, it is particularly aimed at parents picking up and dropping off their kids. They are the worst offenders of seriously dangerous manuvers in the grid lock that can ensue.

    But that said, these forced perspective applications are amazingly realistic. I can envision minivans and suvs swerving around it and sideswiping parked cars, school buses and kids on the sidewalk.

    Oh yeah, and $15,000 for this one week excersise? This is money well spent? Nuts, but that's West Van for you.

  • Jim

    How about 3-D police officers and photo radar?

    • Jenn_

      That'll be next. Then we'll have the 3-D courthouse, prison cell, prison cell room-mate . . .

  • Jonathan

    Dumb! How long before a child is run over because someone thought it was a fake and DIDN'T stop?

  • http://www.preventable.ca robert willis

    Robert the blogger for Preventable.ca here. Thanks for all the attention, comments, and feedback on this campaign so far. For clarification on how the road installation works, please checkout our latest post – http://ht.ly/2BYTv

  • Tom

    Oh good. Something for drivers to fixate on, instead of scanning around for real hazards.

    I know I’d be staring at that thing until it went under the car.

  • http://www.tokentools.com.au/category14_1.htm mig welder

    Wow what a fantastic idea, how many drivers will slow down now I wonder?

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