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what could possibly go wrong

Optical Illusion of Girl Chasing Ball Down Street Is Used to Slow Down Drivers

by James Plafke | 6:05 pm, September 2nd, 2010

In Vancouver, the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation and the safety group Preventable have teamed up and placed an optical illusion of a little girl chasing a ball down the street in an effort to curb reckless driving.

The reasoning behind the display, which costs roughly $15,000, as explained by David Dunn of the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation:

“We need to expect the unexpected because anything could happen, whether it is a 3D image on the road … or whether it’s a live child or a dog running in front of the car, these are all things that we have to be able to control for in a vehicle”

A noble effort, sure, but fairly terrifying, especially considering the illusion looks like “an indistinguishable mark” from far away, then appears as the little girl chasing the ball within 30 meters. The people behind the idea don’t seem to see the problem with parading fake little girls across roads: it has the potential to cause as many safe drivers to fly off the road as it does reckless ones.

(Geek.com via The Globe and Mail)

  • http://www.bradleyfarless.com/ BradleyF81

    How about this? If drivers become used to seeing little girls in the road with balls because of these holograms, when there’s a real one they might assume it’s an image and not stop.

  • Homeslice

    Yeah. They didn’t really stop and think about this, did they?

  • tomboi1978

    This why I can’t stand nanny-states.

  • carouser

    The ultimate irony here is perhaps that, as reports say, the 3D image is being used in an attempt to jolt reckless drivers into reality. What better way to get drivers back “into reality” than by making the roads into a virtual playground where it will become increasingly difficult to tell what’s really there and what’s illusion?

    http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/09/canadian-city-to-scare-drivers-with-optical-illusions/

  • Wpdavis

    as was pointed out ” it has the potential to cause as many safe drivers to fly off the road as it does reckless ones.”. Swerving to miss animals is a significant cause of accidents, so this idea might also result in “swerving to miss” accidents. Still, I think It is an interesting idea that needs to be trialed properly.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Goulet/25704485 Brian Goulet

    yeah, if i slammed on one of my breaks in front of one of these, the very next thing i would do is get out my tire iron and remove as much of the thing as i could

  • Spam1

    15 grand to paint a picture on the road.
    Yeah, ok.

  • http://twitter.com/johnmaddening John Maddening

    Fifteen thousand dollars?!?

  • Quizzard123

    Nonsense.  The image looks KIND of like a little girl from one specific point.  It cathes your eye, it does not convince you that it’s real under any conditions.  It fools nobody who actually looks at it.

  • Quizzard123

    No, $15K to paint a picture AND produce the accompanying advertising campaign.

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