As a driver, pedestrians are probably the scariest things on the roads. Luckily, most of them know that running out in front of an oncoming car is probably not the brightest idea. Still, a Canadian organization is hoping to get West Vancouver drivers to slow down by using an optical illusion that makes it look as though a child has run out in front of the car.
The optical illusion speed bump is an image of a little girl chasing a stray ball. Though the image looks stretched out and silly up close, from about 100 feet away, the 2D image becomes three-dimensional and it looks like a real kid is standing in the middle of the road.
Dubbed Pavement Patty, Discover Magazine reports that the speed bump is part of a $15,000 campaign by BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation and the public awareness group Preventable.ca. Patty will be hanging out near École Pauline Johnson Elementary School for the week, where the speed limit is just 18 miles per hour.
However, many have expressed concern that this will cause drivers to swerve and hit real children on the pavement, and comments on the Discover post show a sizeable number are worried that motorists could become desensitized to the warnings and eventually run over a real child they thought was just a Pavement Patty.
Source: Discovery Blog via the Daily Mail
*Image via Preventable.
