Slashdot Mirror
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).
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?