Watch Out! 3-D Road Image of Little Girl in the Street Meant to Surprise Drivers Into Slowing Down

[RamboLiberal]

A child darting out into the street would make any lead-footed driver slow down, but an innovative speed bump that creates a 3-D version of a little girl chasing a ball is being criticized as creating danger instead of preventing it.

The image of the phantom girl has been put onto a busy road near a West Vancouver, B.C., elementary school. It has been deemed "creepy" and "scary" by some bloggers and Internet posters and downright dangerous by a traffic expert, but a spokesman for the organization that designed speed bump stands by the effect.

"It's not meant to shock and alarm the driver," said David Dunne, director of Road Safety Strategy for the British Columbia Automobile Association. "It's meant to get the driver's attention."

Painted using 3-D technology and then adhered to the pavement, the girl begins to appear to the driver as the vehicle approaches and then fades back into the road way as the car goes over it. It was placed outside the city's Ecole Pauline Johnson school.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/watch-girl-road-image-meant-surprise-drivers-slowing/story?id=11584621

Sounds a bit extreme and dangerous to this driver! That could really stick your heart in your throat and might cause someone to slam on the brakes!

[Connie_Corleone]

1. That is extreme!

I might have a heart attack if that happened to me.

[seabeyond]

2. sick, sick sick. i would wreck my car to avoid, instead of just slowing down

bad idea. and what about when an eye catches something but dismisses it to a speed trap and it is a 3 yr old little girl chasing a ball

[BadgerKid]

3. Paging Julian Beever...

http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

[FiveGoodMen]

4. And after a period of desensitization, people will fail to notice actual children in the street.

Sounds like a bad idea to me!

[eppur_se_muova]

5. "Boy who cried wolf" syndrome -- you are exactly right. nt

[Warpy]

6. It only works the first time

After that, butthead drivers will know it's there and just speed over it.

The only thing that slows buttheads down is a well placed speed hump.

Now if we could only pry the cell phones out of their hands.

[petronius]

7. Sounds like it would attract more drivers to the street

I'd like to see that, myself. Of course, it only takes one driver to mistake a real girl for the spiffy hologram...

[valerief]

8. I have a better idea. Drivers goint too fast get squirted with paint.

The squirts could be calibrated with the car's speed. Speeders would avoid the street altogether. Problem solved!

[izquierdista]

10. That's a great idea!

I'd speed through there every day until I got the paint job my car needs!

[stuntcat]

11. yah!

I wonder if it wouldn't be even easier and cheaper than all the expensive crap the police have to use for speeders now :)

[Brickbat]

9. That is a shitty idea.