London is Using Optical Illusions To Make Cars Slow Down (fastcompany.com) 174
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).
As an American driver (Score:5, Funny)
I don't slow down in my pickup truck for speed bumps. I think the effectiveness of fake speed bumps depends greatly on what kind of suspension your car has and how little you give a fuck.
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I don't slow down in my pickup truck for speed bumps. I think the effectiveness of fake speed bumps depends greatly on what kind of suspension your car has and how little you give a fuck.
There are nowhere near as many pickups or truck-based SUVs on the road in Britain compared to the US. Even in my old pickup though I would slow down for speed bumps- you can still screw your truck up on one of them if you hit it wrong and at speed. Trucks may be designed for off-roading but they're not designed for off-roading at 40mph against rock hard surfaces.
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It is because in Britain they are called Lorry.
Re:As an American driver (Score:4, Informative)
It is because in Britain they are called Lorry.
Not pick-up trucks, They're called pick-up trucks. The larger vehicles called trucks in the US are what are called lorries in the UK.
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They're called pick-up trucks
Which is a strange designation for something I've never been able to actually pick up.
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It is because in Britain they are called Lorry.
Not pick-up trucks, They're called pick-up trucks. The larger vehicles called trucks in the US are what are called lorries in the UK.
It depends, in common vernacular in the UK, they're just called pickups, no-one calls them pickup trucks over here. A lorry is any goods vehicle larger than a van, they can be enclosed, flat bed, articulated (artic), we have many different names for different vehicles.
Pickups are not common in the UK because it rains quite a bit here, as most people who drive pickups are tradesmen, they tend to drive vans in order to keep their tools and wares dry. Even farmers will get an enclosed 4x4 like the Land Rov
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Not to mention that a lot of them wouldn't even fit down some of those little country lanes
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They do, actually. Trees are rather flexible, you see.
He's talking about lanes that are lined with walls and buildings... which unlike an American truck, are quite solidly built and again unlike an American truck, will probably stand for another few hundred years.
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It is because in Britain they are called Lorry.
Not pick-up trucks, They're called pick-up trucks. The larger vehicles called trucks in the US are what are called lorries in the UK.
Hmm, we tend to refer to them as "Chelsea Tractors", you know, the 4WD vehicles that have never seen a road outside of London and the home counties, and are generally only used for ferrying Tarquin and Arabella to prep school and back, or the weekly shop to Waitrose.
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They're called pick-up trucks.
I have lived in UK for >20 years, and I have only heard about pickup trucks from a handful of people who want to sound a bit American. Here they seem to be referred to as "four by fours" (written 4x4) since they tend to have four wheel drive, but that also includes vehicles that don't look much like the American pickup truck, such as the various Landrovers. They aren't as popular in UK, where you'd probably drive a closed van instead - another part of the lower popularity is lack of parking space: Britis
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It sounds like you're describing a utility truck, or "ute" for short.
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Most people just call them all lorries.
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For larger vehicles we call them Artics in the UK, a lorry is a smaller vehicle than an Artic but bigger THAN a van.
FTFY
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Not sure I agree that pickup trucks are called lorries. When I think of lorries I generally think of a commercial-type vehicle that (almost) nobody would ever consider buying or driving as their regular daily driver. Yes, pickup trucks swing both ways, there are spartan "work truck" pickups – and the number one selling "car" in the US is actually the Ford F150 pickup[1].
In London a non-work pickup truck or other SUV might also be called a Chelsea Tractor, although I believe that term is really reserve
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When I think of lorries I generally think of a commercial-type vehicle that (almost) nobody would ever consider buying or driving as their regular daily driver.
Regardless of how big (or small) it is.
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Them Duke boys sure are in a pickle this time, ain't they?
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People who have Pickup Trucks and don't use them for real work, are the ones who do this type of stuff. If the truck is essential for your livelihood, you are more apt to drive it more carefully.
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Mine is split between a commute vehicle and light off-road travel (fire roads, sometimes washed out by seasonal streams). The truck is rather beat up, as to be expected when driven frequently in harsh conditions. Most of the maintenance for a 4x4 is new tires and alignment, and of course the parts that break or outright fall off.
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I disagree - at least on the principal. Nobody who wants to keep their truck working for long as going to be just hitting a speed bump at full blast, but outside of that, the people who use their pickups for "real work" tend to not baby them as much as the people just using them as a glorified car. My dad's F-150 was a beat to death rust bucket with the seats being mostly duct tape by the time he retired it at around ~350,000 miles (and it was still technically running), but he didn't really care as he wo
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People who have Pickup Trucks and don't use them for real work, are the ones who do this type of stuff. If the truck is essential for your livelihood,
Not sure about there, but in Australia there is a good rule of thumb: a real working 4WD/SUV/pickup/utility is painted white.
Wankers who just want size-compensation have fancy metallic paint-jobs, and never go near mud or bushes that might scratch it.
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Really? Because I see an awful lot of people driving their big SUVs with + 12" clearance in my neighborhood at 2 mph, tenderly crawling over speed bumps as if they were driving a 2015 Corvette. It's kinda funny.
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By big SUV I assume you mean one with a truck suspension. I could see people not liking the wild rocking that occurs in a truck suspension. They are designed for strength and capacity and not comfort. That said I do like the ride of a truck when it has a big trailer on it, the extra mass really smooths things out.
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I can agree with this. My last vehicle was a Tiburon (tiny Hyundai). Current is a Colorado (mid-size pickup). Speed bumps felt a heck of a lot smoother in the car than the truck. I have to get pretty slow not to have a pretty pronounced thud when I go over a speed bump now.
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More like the luxury SUVs, actually. I have a 2011 Grand Cherokee, it handles speed bumps and intersections where you're crossing over a road with a very pronounced crown just fine. Actually, there's more of the latter in my neighborhood but they have the same effect as speed bumps. ;-)
OTOH, I see guys flying across them in their Honda civics and scraping their frame all the time.
Human nature in a nutshell; the people who need to drive more slowly don't, and those who don't, do.
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Really? Because I see an awful lot of people driving their big SUVs with + 12" clearance in my neighborhood at 2 mph, tenderly crawling over speed bumps as if they were driving a 2015 Corvette. It's kinda funny.
Most SUVs are for show. The "Sport" is just in the appearance, they're actually less practical for rough conditions than your average car because of their higher centre of gravity. Depending on the SUV going slow over the speed bumps, a lot of them probably NEED to go slow.
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Much of London is laid out on the old Medieval street plan, and driving around that area is something you should only do if you really have to. Vehicles and pedestrians share some pretty tight spaces at times, and the traffic probably does need to be calmed.
The busses are great, and the Tube even better.
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I don't like speed bumps either, and they are an annoyance, but if I lived in London I might feel differently.
Maybe, if you don't own a car.
If you do own one they damage your suspension, make your exhaust fall off and cause great annoyance.
If you live near to one then they add a lot to traffic noise, especially if I'm driving over them - I'll brake late, then halfway over start to accelerate to keep my average speed at a sensible level. Don't like the racing engine, tell the council to remove the fucking car breakers.
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I hate speed bumps and speed "humps" (the wide ones that sometimes have a pedestrian walkway across). It's me being punished because other idiots couldn't control themselves and slow down.
It's also a device that usually enforces a 25 MPH speed limit by making you slow down to 10-15 MPH, which I find really inappropriate.
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I think the effectiveness of fake speed bumps depends greatly on what kind of suspension your car has and how little you give a fuck.
The cops don't slow down for the speed bumps around here, they drive 'em like they stole 'em. Crown Vics can soak up the bumps I guess.
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Also, keep in mind that they don't have to pay to get it fixed.
It's like driving a rental car with full coverage every day!
Re:As an American driver (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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I remember the speed bump at the entrance to my high school parking lot. It was not very high and people found out that by speeding up the momentum of the car tended to make the bump pretty mild. It was odd in that by slowing down the bump actually became worse.
After a year or two of this the school put in a much higher speed bump over the summer, that was a shock on the first day of school. After that people actually did slow down coming into the parking lot.
Also about suspension I noticed that a poorly
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I don't slow down in my pickup truck for speed bumps. I think the effectiveness of fake speed bumps depends greatly on what kind of suspension your car has and how little you give a fuck.
The thing is, if you tried driving your "pick up" in London, speed humps will be the last of your worries as you won't be able to get to most of them to begin with. I've got a BMW 2 series... and that's massive on London streets. Glad I don't drive there often. Americans and Australians who've never driven here don't get how narrow the streets get because unlike our nations, many British towns existed before roads were even a thing.
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I don't slow down in my pickup truck for speed bumps. I think the effectiveness of fake speed bumps depends greatly on what kind of suspension your car has and how little you give a fuck.
Some general advice: Whenever you say "When I do something in [insert american car here], remember that it is unlikely to apply outside of America."
Many european cars are smaller than American gokarts, and yes you most definitely want to slow down for speedbumps :)
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Re:As an American driver (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't slow down in my pickup truck for speed bumps. I think the effectiveness of fake speed bumps depends greatly on what kind of suspension your car has and how little you give a fuck.
Yes, "buy, destroy and throw away" seems very much to be a part of American consumer culture. It is as if you guys think it is somehow "manly", whereas in many other countries it is seen a simply stupid. When you invest a significant amount of money in something, it is clever to take good care of it, so you can benefit from your investment for a reasonable length of time.
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The suspension in some pickups probably wouldn't be damaged by going the speed limit over reasonably-sized speed bumps.
Well, isn't the purpose of speed bumps to make people not exceed the speed limit? The combination of speed limit and speed bumps should be so that you can drive to the speed limit without damaging your car. The speed limit implies a contract between the local authority and the road users: by allowing you to drive up tio that limit, they promise that it is safe to do so, which it wouldn't be if there are obstructions that are likely to damage the car.
Old technology (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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.
I imagine they may work great if it's not a road you frequently travel, but surely, over time you get used to them and learn to ignore them.
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I suppose it's a combination of you knowing that they are there because you need to go slowly for safety reasons, and other drivers who are less familiar with the are slowing down and forcing all other traffic to move more slowly.
Maybe it's a bit like when they remove road markings. The road is the same but seems more dangerous so people slow down... The paint on the road adds details that make the brain work a bit harder to spot potential dangers or something.
I don't fully understand the psychology, but it
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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.
I imagine they may work great if it's not a road you frequently travel, but surely, over time you get used to them and learn to ignore them.
And that when the city should replace them with real speed bumps.
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I imagine they may work great if it's not a road you frequently travel, but surely, over time you get used to them and learn to ignore them.
If there's even moderate traffic, though, someone will slow down, which then slows everybody else down. So all it takes is for one in ten or twenty to not know it's fake. Also, don't underestimate the ability for most drivers to completely ignore what they could potentially be learning on their drives to make life easier the next time.... they're mostly too busy checking facebook to realize they can learn and adapt their driving. Most people don't even think about what they're doing next.
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They need to install real speed bumps designed to look exactly the same randomly. They save some money since they don't have to build as many and it becomes a fun guessing game for drivers. If only there was a way to randomly move them around too - but that would completely undo the entire "save money" part :)
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I wonder if fake speed bumps are as effective.
As long as there are a few real ones in the area. Otherwise, not for very long.
Re:Old technology (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [nytimes.com]. 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?
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Yeah, that's what I'd be worried about. That instead of teaching people to slow down on these roads, it teaches people to ignore things that look like obstacles in the road. I bet someone could wreak a lot of havoc in Philadelphia by dropping concrete colored triangular prisms all over the roads. Their drivers are now trained to
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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?
That could be fixed by putting the odd real pyramid in every once in a while :)
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Here in Colorado they do something similar for cows. Where a fenceline crosses a road, the traditional way to keep cows from going through is a "cattle guard": a shallow trench across the road spanned by a steel grating that's passable by cars, but difficult for hoofed animals to walk on. Turns out you can save money by faking some percentage of them with painted stripes on the pavement.
Of course cows are modestly intelligent at best, and don't live long enough to learn the trick...
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Go to youtube and find videos of kids trolling cars with invisible string.
Yes, there's no string, but the driver will doubt and slowdown.
It seems the fake speed bumpers are also working as intended.
Don't bother (Score:2)
The summary is almost as long as the article, seriously the only addition is a comment that they aren't the first.
I was hoping for something clever, like the stripes before roundabouts that get closer together to give an impression of speeding up. There's a reason this fake speed bump thing won't catch on. It will only affect those that haven't driven on the roads before or regularly. Anyone that has will know they are fake and drive at the same speed as before.
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Actual link to real content from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/u... [bbc.co.uk]
Sounds dangerous to me (Score:2)
What happens when someone damages their car because they went over a speed bump at normal speed because they though it was an optical illusion? I know, they should have slowed down, but there still will be a lawsuit because there always is.
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What happens? Absolutely nothing.
If you hit a speed bump AT SPEED it is the same as if you slow way down for it (the intended goal).
If you slow down a bit, but not enough -- then you REALLY feel it (and I suppose you could do damage).
My philosophy for speed bumps has always been to SPEED UP. You won't feel them...
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That depends on the speed bump and the vehicle, and you won't know what's what until you drive over a particular speed bump in a particular vehicle.
We have speed trapezoids on a certain road near me. If you go over them at anything more than 3 MPH you're going to fuck your shit up. They're hardly any better than jumping a curb.
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If speed bumps are really tall - they may exceed the distance the suspension is designed to smooth out. They are not talking about the ridges carved into roads like on Interstate shoulders.
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What happens is that they're an idiot, and they learn not to be an idiot next time.
Calling Wolf [Re:Sounds dangerous to me] (Score:3, Funny)
That's what I was thinking. But if the decoy decision is local, then problems at real speed bumps at other places outside your jurisdiction is arguably not your problem. Let them ruin their suspension.
My wife often puts clocks ahead to trick the family into getting ready on time. When we get accustomed to the inflated time, she shifts it even more. Eventually somebody puts them back to normal in protest and everybody is late for a day or two. Rinse, repeat.
Whether it's overall better than always-honest cloc
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In short... It is there fault. They should be driving slower for the optical illusion, not ignoring the illusions and accidentally hitting the real ones at full speed. You can't fix stupid. But you can make stupid pay for their own mistakes.
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Many speed bumps are actually illegal. Speed bumps are regulated, in particular, there is a maximum height that is often exceeded.
If it is, you can claim damage. If it isn't, you are on your own.
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This was my reaction too. I once cracked a block hitting a speed bump at 30 mph.
Of course, the resulting lawsuit might be better aimed at the manufacturer who didn't design in a proper limit to the travel of the front springs. My engine actually contacted the ground due to that mistake.
It'll work for a few weeks (Score:1, Flamebait)
Just long enough for a bureaucrat to declare victory and start looking for the next "success" to add to his resume.
Drivers will quickly adjust, and traffic will return to normal (bad).
Then, in a few years, someone will notice that "traffic has gotten bad again" and this same bureaucrat will be given the task of solving it, thanks to his supposed expertise.
Works for the moment. Then it brings problems. (Score:2)
Works now. Until people learn that the speed bumps are illusions and they start to ignore them, then the traffic jams are back. And then we get some new ones when people run into a REAL speed bump they thought was an illusion and the car dies in the middle of a road right during the rush hour.
works until it doesn't work (Score:2)
So this is a solution which get's the desired response but doesn't solve the problem, speeding. Eventually drivers will become accustom to such painting/illusions and temper there accident response. Instead of your brain saying look a child, or obstruction and immediately apply teh break your brain will introduce the question is it an illusion before applying the break.
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Dangerous and a possible suit... (Score:2)
What happens when people on certain routes know about the false markings and get use to them. And then unconscious cross a real bump at too high a speed.... possibly causing an accident.... people react to these things without knowing. All speedbump markings will get edited from the minds eye as they will be meaningless.
Hmm that may or may not be a speed bump. Russian roulette anyone?
Short term solution at best (Score:2)
They work in the short term. But drivers will learn very quickly that they aren't real and will know which they can ignore. It'll take a few days at most.
New drivers (to that road) will slow for them going forward, but anyone who uses the road in any way frequently won't.
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From my experience, it is the locals are the ones who slow down anyways. But the rest try to go fast to try to not show that they are not local.
I have a long dangerous road that I need to commute to work every day. I know the spots where I should go below the posted limit and spots where I can go above. Normally what happens is there is some guy (normally out of state) who will pass me in an angry rage because I was going right at the posted speed limit, only for him to hit his breaks hard a few more hun
this assumes a clear vision of the road ahead (Score:2)
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That is so stupid it is staggering (Score:2)
What will happen is that withing a very short time drivers will ignore them. And then when they run into real ones, they will be surprised and cause accidents. This is really beyond stupid.
Unintended Consequences (Score:2)
People will see these illusory speed bumps, drive over them and think, "Say, that wasn't so bad." After a while, they will start taking the at full speed. Until they hit a real one. After a number of people incur large bills for suspension damage, a new city administration will be elected to office.
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Yes, but I guess this case is different. Do you really think that a judge will award you compensation if you drive into a speed bum at full speed? It sounds stupid, and it is stupid.
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Do you really think that a judge will award you compensation
No. But people vote.
Wouldn't they be obstacle illusions? (Score:2)
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Yo dawg (Score:5, Informative)
They've pushed drivers well beyond breaking point (Score:4, Interesting)
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!
My street has an optical illusion (Score:2)
The problem is that it's the nasty kind.
When you turn off of the main road, it looks like a simple uphill stretch. There is a slight slope to the street, but it also narrows several feet at the same time, and the hill masks the narrowing part. People tend to maintain their lane spot by watching clues on the driver's side (like where the left-hand curb is compared to the window pillars), so they miss the right-hand curb getting closer.
About once a month, someone hits the curb across the street hard enough to
Figures. (Score:2)
London has an interesting idea to curb speeding -- magic.
Science takes brains, magic - black eyeliner.
not effective (Score:2)
Training people to do the wrong thing (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Don't have to be that effective (Score:2)
It costs a tenth the price, if it is a tenth as effective, still worth it.
My lawyer sense is tingling (Score:2)
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Speedhumps (Score:3)
I live in London, this isn't new. In fact there's one down the road to me that's been there for 10+ years.
In the middle of a series of REAL bumps, there's a "fake" bump with the same painted lines, even ones that "narrow" for the bump, painted "up arrow" on the road itself, etc. But it's as flat as a pancake.
I tell you now - it must be extraordinarily cheaper. I've seen prices of speed bumps, they are NOT cheap. However, it's singularly ineffective. Basically if you've NEVER driven that road before, you slow for it. But every one else remembers it's there (it's actually odd enough to stick in your mind whether you want it to or not) and just goes over it.
If anything, it probably causes more problems.
Bear in mind, I'm all for traffic-calming measures, speed limit enforcement, etc. Yes, you can all hate me. But even I just look at it and go "Well, that's useless". It's not even worth the time to paint the lines, to be honest.
But then bumps are a pain in the arse and slow nobody, they just find alternative routes (i.e. the quiet backstreets you DON'T want them going down, near schools etc.) or bounce over them. Especially the stupid "narrow enough for you to drive straight over" ones that are supposed to slow normal traffic but allow emergency vehicles through. Those are a complete waste of time too.
Stop fucking about, and just put an average speed camera on every corner, that alerts nearby police cars if people go through it without a license plate. It solves SO MANY problems in one fell swoop - uninsured, untested cars are immediately flagged, you can't cheat it, you can't even zip down side-streets because the next average camera will know you went over 30mph by the shortest route to do so, etc. Evidence of you breaking the law (bumps do nothing for this). Not damaging to vehicles. Doesn't need tearing up the road for.
The only thing that actually SLOWS drivers is average cameras, proven by the M25's new cameras. And if you zoom through them, without a plate, there'll often be a cop at the next junction waiting for you and a photo of your car/face waiting for the court.
Stop faffing about with bumps, chicanes, signs, fake speed camera boxes, etc. and just nick people if they go over 30 in a way they can't just cheat by knowing where the camera is.
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I'm cool with that.
So long as they only get paid when idiots break a clearly-stated, obviously-well-understood, well-known law. To be honest, at that point, all you've done is shove money from court fines to the police forces direct.
It's like charging people £10 for littering. They can't charge you £10 if you weren't littering. You can take it to court if you had exceptional circumstances or don't have the money. But if you're littering, and get fined, that money should quite rig
SUVs in America (Score:2)
In America, the only time 99% of the SUVs on the road, go off-road, is when the owner backs over the flowerbed.
I wonder... (Score:3)
If they'll stop making tunnels and just paint one on the wall, ala' road runner cartoons.
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it happened, but nobody crashed into the wall
http://www.snopes.com/road-run... [snopes.com]
Works once (Score:2)
These speed calming measures work once.
When a driver realises they are fake, they continue to drive at whatever speed they would have done previously.
The problem that actual speed bumps cause is that people slow down for them. They then accelerate afterwards. With fossil-burning vehicles, this leads to pollution.
What actually works to prevent speeding (and stop-stop bunching, and some pollution) is average speed cameras, and stretches of roads that are clearly signed as such.
Either that, or actual police vi
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As a result, people slow down before and accelerate aft
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I saw one yesterday that was where 2 roads merge before splitting again and everyone does the lane dance in the shared section of road. The speed limit was 20, which is frankly too slow for the size of the road & they put a speed camera right at the point the lanes merge. So while you're paying attention to all the crazy lane swapping happening around you, you also need to fix your eyes on your speedo to make sure you don't accidentally creep over an u