Philadelphia using 3D illusions of speed bumps to slow traffic
06-18-08, 06:58 AM
#1
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Philadelphia using 3D illusions of speed bumps to slow traffic
Posted: Friday, 13 June 2008 5:13AM
3D Images Part of City's Effort to Slow Down Drivers
by KYW's Mike Dunn and Mike DeNardo
City, state, and federal officials will roll out a program aimed at getting drivers in Philadelphia to heed the speed limit. One part of this involves 3-D images that will look like bumps in the road.
The program is called "Drive CarePhilly," and the goal, according to Charles Denny, the city's chief traffic engineer, is simple:
"The goal is to change the mindset. The goal is to get the drivers to be less aggressive. We want them to go what the speed limit is, not to assume that its a recommended speed, to know that its a speed limit that's appropriate on residential streets."
Denny says this effort includes the deployment at about 100 intersections of high tech decals that create a 3-D image, to make drivers think there's something in the intersection:
"Plastic material that is laid down, and it gives the illusion of being a hump in the roadway. And therefore people react to it as though it were a hump, and slow down. The driver sees this in the roadway, and they think that its some protrusion up out of the roadway, and not a perfectly flat surface. So they slow down before they drive over it."
Also, the city is launching a public awareness campaign to convince you to stop putting pedal to the metal.
Bluegrass Road, for example, connects Welsh Road and Grant Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia. The speed limit is 25, and for about a week, signs, speed humps, and "virtual speed bumps" have been deployed to slow down the speeders who use the road as a shortcut.
Richard Simon, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says they'll be studying Bluegrass Road:
"Crash data, citation data, public awareness data. And we're going to put that all into a comprehensive research report which would prove, hopefully without any equivocation, the success of countermeasures tlike this."
Al Hoffman, who lives on Bluegrass Road, doesn't need comprehensive research:
"We couldn't get in and out of the complex."
And now?
"Now, it's a pleasure."
Police are also getting more speed enforcement tracking devices for squad cars, and officers in six districts will be assigned specifically to go after speeders.
(Photo by KYW's Mike DeNardo)
3D Images Part of City's Effort to Slow Down Drivers
by KYW's Mike Dunn and Mike DeNardo
City, state, and federal officials will roll out a program aimed at getting drivers in Philadelphia to heed the speed limit. One part of this involves 3-D images that will look like bumps in the road.
The program is called "Drive CarePhilly," and the goal, according to Charles Denny, the city's chief traffic engineer, is simple:
"The goal is to change the mindset. The goal is to get the drivers to be less aggressive. We want them to go what the speed limit is, not to assume that its a recommended speed, to know that its a speed limit that's appropriate on residential streets."
Denny says this effort includes the deployment at about 100 intersections of high tech decals that create a 3-D image, to make drivers think there's something in the intersection:
"Plastic material that is laid down, and it gives the illusion of being a hump in the roadway. And therefore people react to it as though it were a hump, and slow down. The driver sees this in the roadway, and they think that its some protrusion up out of the roadway, and not a perfectly flat surface. So they slow down before they drive over it."
Also, the city is launching a public awareness campaign to convince you to stop putting pedal to the metal.
Bluegrass Road, for example, connects Welsh Road and Grant Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia. The speed limit is 25, and for about a week, signs, speed humps, and "virtual speed bumps" have been deployed to slow down the speeders who use the road as a shortcut.
Richard Simon, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says they'll be studying Bluegrass Road:
"Crash data, citation data, public awareness data. And we're going to put that all into a comprehensive research report which would prove, hopefully without any equivocation, the success of countermeasures tlike this."
Al Hoffman, who lives on Bluegrass Road, doesn't need comprehensive research:
"We couldn't get in and out of the complex."
And now?
"Now, it's a pleasure."
Police are also getting more speed enforcement tracking devices for squad cars, and officers in six districts will be assigned specifically to go after speeders.
(Photo by KYW's Mike DeNardo)
06-18-08, 09:42 AM
#7
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06-18-08, 10:10 AM
#8
Speaks French in Russian
Leave it up to philly to come up with something so ridiculous. I haven't seen this in my part of town yet, but im curious to see how effective this can be. Im sure it will work for about a week or two but that's about it.
06-18-08, 10:40 AM
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i see more accedents
guy in front freaks out and slams on the breaks b.c he thinks there's a speed bump & guy in back knows it's not a speed bump ... so he slams into guy in front because guy in back didnt expect guy in front to abs
good work
this is like when they put little traffic islands on one of our streets to 'calm traffic' like so: =====<>=======<>=======<>=======..... so many people would drive faster through there so they could slalom and the effot cause more problems
guy in front freaks out and slams on the breaks b.c he thinks there's a speed bump & guy in back knows it's not a speed bump ... so he slams into guy in front because guy in back didnt expect guy in front to abs
good work
this is like when they put little traffic islands on one of our streets to 'calm traffic' like so: =====<>=======<>=======<>=======..... so many people would drive faster through there so they could slalom and the effot cause more problems
06-18-08, 01:31 PM
#13
pedestrians in philly don't stand on the sidewalk when waiting for a walk sign. they stand in the street, almost in the driving lanes. that alone should get people to slow down, but i guess it doesn't. imo, there are so many things wrong with this place. 
06-18-08, 01:40 PM
#14
Lexus Champion
well, or they can do this after people continue to speed, put it right where the 3D "used to be"
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg79_mM2CNY
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg79_mM2CNY
06-18-08, 05:01 PM
#15
Intermediate
I live in Philly and drive on the street with these 3D marks almost everyday. The first time I noticed them I didnt even pay any attention to them and I did not see anyone slow down for them either, but what you do have to slow down for are the speed humps a few yards down the road from them. These things are much higher then a speed bump in a mall parking lot and if you don't slow down you can do some major damage to your car.