London is Using Optical Illusions To Make Cars Slow Down (fastcompany.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: London has an interesting idea to curb speeding -- magic. The British capital has painted optical illusions on its streets as part of a pilot program to get drivers to slow down, podcast 99% Invisible notes. The idea is both pretty simple and pretty clever: use a little sleight of hand to paint the streets to look like they have speed bumps on them, but don't use finite city resources to actually build speed bumps into the road. The 18-month pilot program was launched in September of last year, according to the BBC, and the city is still determining whether the black-and-white stencils are as effective as actual bumps to deter drivers from exceeding 20mph (as if traffic in London ever goes faster than 20 mph).

Comments

Old technology

[AmiMoJo]

They have been doing this in Japan and some northern European countries for at least a decade. They paint little pyramid looking things on the road that cause drivers to slow down. It's an odd feeling, you know they are just painted on but feel like you want to slow down anyway for some reason.

I wonder if fake speed bumps are as effective.

Re:Old technology

[ShanghaiBill]

They have been doing this in Japan and some northern European countries for at least a decade.

They have also been used in America. Philadelphia started using them in 2008. Philly uses virtual pyramids like in Japan, rather than the virtual humps used in London.

It's an odd feeling, you know they are just painted on but feel like you want to slow down anyway for some reason.

Short term effectiveness has been shown. But I couldn't find any data about how effective they are over the long term, as people get used to them. Can anyone cite long term data?

They've pushed drivers well beyond breaking point

[Anonymous Coward]

Last time I HAD to drive into the heart of London I did what any sensible person would do and set off at 4am, Sunday morning. I got to the city proper around 6am and the roads we're still pretty much deserted (by London standards at least) however this by no means made driving easy.

Ignoring the average speed traps taper you down from 70 - 30 with the constant threat of fines, there are mile long stretches of road with lights ever 100 yards, and box junctions with cameras every 50. The lights are phased in such a fashion that you will be required to stop at every single light regardless of the complete absence of other traffic. Run a light - automated fine, stop in a box - automated fine.

Add to this feature like those mentioned in TFA, the ones I saw were multicolored anamorphic cubed designed to look like debris, and the fact that even Londoners don't know their way round London and you've seeming engineered to drive people to suicide. Never mind what Soho is like in peak traffic.

It's honestly a place where you can take a leisurely drive across the city at 5am on a weekend and by the time you've reached the other side have not only accumulated enough points for several driving bans, but enough fines to bankrupt yourself too!

Training people to do the wrong thing

[nine-times]

One of the videos shows that they painted a road to look like a little girl is crouching down in the middle of the street. Maybe I'm just being silly, but my mind jumped back to the release of Windows Vista, and the initial versions of UAC.

In case you don't remember, Microsoft released Windows Vista with the great new security feature that every time your computer was about to do something that was a security risk, a window would pop up asking, "are you sure you want to do this?" Not only was this annoying, but people quickly adapted to these interruptions by thoughtlessly clicking "Ok" or "Yes" to any window that popped up on their screen. Microsoft set up a bunch of warnings, and the result was training users to ignore warnings.

So what I'd worry about here is that people are going to get used to the idea that these paintings aren't really speed bumps, and the little girl in the middle of the street isn't a real little girl. They'll get so used to it that they'll blow straight past it. And then, on some very unfortunate day, it'll turn out the it really was a little girl playing in the street.

Re:As an American driver

[hey!]

My town recently reduced the speed limit to 25. They put in solar powered radar signs which show your speed in green if it's below the speed limit, red it it's above. If you slow down to the speed limit or below the red speed is replaced by a bright orange "Thank You!".

And the thing is, the damned things actually work. You can see people all around town slowing down to get the "Thank You!" message.

It reminds me of Febreze. Febreze is based on a molecule that traps most unpleasant odors, but when they test marketed Febreze it was a dismal failure. It turns out you can't establish a habit of buying a product by eliminating odors. So P&G added fragrence to their odor eliminating. Or the disinfectant Bactine; it doesn't have to sting but they add alcohol so you know its working. Or the urinals in the Amsterdam airport that have a target painted on them, which eliminates sloppy peers peeing on the floor.

People are very reward driven. It doesn't take much to be effective. Just seeing something happen is enough to motivate people to do something.