Frank, Jessica, Dan and few more of our loyal visitors pointed me to this interesting article about 3D Optical Illusions being used as a part of Philadelphia’s effort to slow down drivers speeding through local streets. I just read this article on CNN, and the basic idea is that rather than building real speed bumps on roads, optical illusion speed bumps are being tested that are intended to trick drivers into slowing down, only later to find that there was no bump after all. I’m all for great new ideas like this one, specially when they have something to do with illusions, but this one seems very flawed. Maybe an optical illusion bump would trick me once, but wouldn’t I learn pretty quickly where these fake bumps are located? Another problem would occur if I was driving a bike, and lost my control over it. I can also see people in the near future beginning to ignore real speed bumps thinking they are illusions, only to hit the bumps at 35 mph and getting a little unintended air. What do you think? In short: markings are designed to look like a 3-D pyramid from afar, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is testing the “bumps”, they cost a fraction of real speed bumps and require little maintenance, in one location drivers slowed down, but the effect wore off after a few months.
