Optical Illusion Speed Bump

Philadelphia has a clever new program to try to get drivers to slow down: optical illusion speed bumps!

The city is putting out high-tech plastic devices that create a 3-D image that looks like a bump in the road. Chief traffic engineer Charles Denny says in reality, the road is perfectly flat.

Denny says the goal is simple: to change the driver's mind-set to be less aggressive.

The devices will be deployed at about 100 intersections around Philadelphia. They'll give the illusion that something is sticking up out of the pavement so motorists will slow down.

Link (with video) - via Arbroath


um... wouldnt *real* speed bumps be more effective?

once people realise these are fake, theyre going to blow right through them. and then screw up their car when they hit a real one.
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ambulances like this way better, only thing is: this only works for tourists. All the regulars know its there. Wait untill some prankster replaces it with the real deal :D
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I tend to find speed bumps somewhat ineffective since I find myself playing the "how fast can i get going after that last speed bump before i need to brake before the next one?" game when I encounter them.
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Wonder if any studies show speed bumps cause more accidents? They are a huge distraction, and cause erratic speeding/slowing driving. Like potholes, you spend valuable brain power concentrating on them rather than other traffic.
Not to mention some of them are smoother if taken at speed.
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If you watch the video it shows that they have both real and fake speed humps on that road, so they're trying to get drivers to slow down for the length of the road instead of just before the real hump. I agree that the regular drivers of the road will no to drive right over the yellow fake ones, but I bet it will work in keeping the cars at a slower pace.
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They should switch the real and fake ones every few days so that aggressive drivers are launched up in the air and crash their cars onto the incoming car, that way there'll be less cars on the road and more place for us pedestrians!
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"yes, i understand the real speed bump suggestion, but they’d be more expensive."

more expensive than holograms? kinda doubt that. you know speed bumps are just more of what's under them, right?
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This has gotta be the stupidest idea I've ever heard of.
People who know that it's fake are going to speed through. People who have never driven down the road are going to think that it's a real speed bump, slow down and get rear ended.
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My neighborhood street turns into a cut-through when there is traffic (so, 20 out of 24 hours) so I strategically leave palm fronds on the tiny road to slow people down. Even slows SUVs down.
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Speed hump hehe. People from Philly calling bumps humps. Oh well, if it works, it works. If one car in a line of fast cars slows down for it, others should as well. You never know until they get the results back.
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I've only ever seen these on one road in Phoenix (Coral Gables), and I honestly didn't know hey were supposed to be speed bumps. They're very obviously just arrows painted on the ground...At least I know what they are now!
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@ bruce8505

I like the idea of changing the bumps from fake to real...but I can't agree to the idea of cars getting launched into the air and crashing into each other. I think there should just be a system where it detects some bozo driving over the speed limit and the bump just changes into one of those spikey reverse security speed bumbs. ;)
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