What do you think??

[Kip Powick]

What would happen if you saw a 3D illusion of a young girl chasing a ball across the street near a school?

A Canadian safety group hopes you'd slow down and think twice about speeding through a school zone. Critics of the image say it might scare drivers and lead to accidents.

Either way, she's got your attention, which is the point, said a spokesman for Preventable, a British Columbia-based safety awareness group behind the stunt.

"This is a way to reinvigorate what becomes a pretty tired message every year. We become anesthetized to the risks related to driving, but the risks are very real, especially in British Columbia, where we have more than 400 fatalities each year related to motor vehicles," said David Dunne, Director of the Traffic Safety Foundation and spokesperson for Preventable.

Video: Will drivers stop for 3D illusion?

The 45-foot, heat-treated 2D decal will stay on a busy intersection near the Ecole Pauline Johnson in West Vancouver for a week. The illusion's debut on Tuesday coincided with the start of school year, when children are at the greatest risk of pedestrian-related injuries, Preventable says on its website.

The group, which uses guerrilla marketing in campaigns focusing on preventable injuries, developed the image with the support of the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation, the District of West Vancouver, School District #45 West Vancouver, and the West Vancouver Police.

With the help of a

that shows how it appears to an approaching driver, the illusion has sparked intense debate in British Columbia and outside Canada, with some claiming it could lead drivers to swerve or break abruptly in a school zone.

But Preventable says a detailed risk assessment was undertaken to address such concerns.

Before drivers approach the image, they pass a "School Zone" sign, crosswalk, an extended curb and a sign by Preventable that reads, "You’re probably not expecting kids to run out on the road."

The figure begins to take shape from about 50 feet away and appears in 3D for another 40 feet until the driver it about 10 feet away, where the image recedes into a "blob" on the street," Dunne said.

"As you’re driving over it, it's not like driving over a little girl. The illusion, as it appears, looks like a cartoon, I've likened it to the difference between a photo and a cartoon."

Preventable and its partner groups are monitoring the image to ascertain how it affects drivers' behavior. In the meantime, the attention it has drawn has accomplished its intended effect, said Dunne.

"If hundreds of people were killed each year in British Columbia because of the airline industry, we wouldn't accept it. And these injuries and fatalities are preventable," he said.

"We need to change people's attitudes to really change their behavior. Sometimes you have to get in people's faces to change their attitudes

[Moon The Loon]

Very interesting concept. I would suggest if someone has to swerve at high speed to avoid the "little girl", then any damage done to their vehicle will only add to the learning that needed to take place to SLOW DOWN in residential areas. To get off the cellphone; to stop programming the GPS while moving; to pull over to study the map; whatever...the list of things robbing drivers' attention is astonishing. With the reported toll in BC, maybe something drastic is needed.

Very interesting indeed...

[Maverick]

Stupid idea, it would be very effective the first time but if they were everywhere then they are about as hard-hitting as those crosses on the side of the road.

People will be numb to it and that ultimately will make it worse.

[JL]

Stupid idea, it would be very effective the first time but if they were everywhere then they are about as hard-hitting as those crosses on the side of the road.

People will be numb to it and that ultimately will make it worse.

I agree. Hit 'em where it counts...in the pocket book. Every school zone should have a permanent photo radar installation with 50% of the take going to the school board.

[CanadaEH]

There's a good idea, JL!!

[John S.]

Wonder if the 3D effect will work/did work in the rain.

[Kip Powick]

Wonder if the 3D effect will work/did work in the rain.

My problem is that it may "catch-you" the first time but after that one may become 'numb' to the pictograph and if seeing again just drive as per normal.

What happens if an actual, say child similarily dressed, does come out on the street?

Radar sounds like a good idea but there is a continued cost involved and Lord knows we now have a controversery about the effects of wifi in the schools so I am sure constant radar would run into the same wall.

My solution??? Speed bumps might work, interspersed with radar and really high costs to violators.

I dunno and sure I know that the value of a child's life is uncalculatable however this constant quest to 'protect' children from everything in the world is taking parenting out of the hands of those that bring the little ones into the world. Seems to me common sense, (teaching your children), which was at the forefront, is being replaced with a 'not my responsibility ' attitude.........so sad.

I believe Darwin was correct

[inchman]

Personally, I think the swerve factor is small here because it doesn't look like a child at the last minute. Nobody's going to swerve 75 feet away.

By the same token, it does become a bit of a "cry wolf" situation. If there were hundreds of these plastered around a city, people will just tune out the image of a child on the street. But that's only my opinion. If someone were to do a bit of independent research on the true medium term effect of the thing, and it proves to work, more power to them. Whatever it takes to keep kids safe.

Realistically, however, people might slow down the first time. But after that, it's like parking a dummy police car on the side of the road or having a mannequin radar cop standing in the same place every day (although a combination of mannequins with an occasional real guy would work, don't you think?)

Anybody who's driven north on Dixie Rd north of Mayfield (Brampton area), has seen a dummy police car on the west side of the road half hidden in the bushes. It really gets your attention the first time, but after that, it's just a white car with blue stripe on it.

I believe Darwin was correct

The problem is that the idiot parents or idiot drivers are not the ones who "un"-survive for their lack of oversight. I guess if one were to take the theory to its limit, one might say that the child carries the idiot genes of their parents and would be just as stupid when they grew up, thus making the theory work. But a bit harsh of a preemptive strike, IMO.

[deicer]

Here's an article that makes some sense...

http://www.wheels.ca/News%20and%20Features/article/791685

But education needs reinforcement.

I do agree that there should be speed cameras in school zones. There are 4 schools within a 4 block radius of where I live, and the road that connects one major thoroughfare to the other in between them is a 50kph road that the police regularly catch people doing 110kph on. In a residential area!!!!! I know this because when out on a walk, I've regularly talked to the officers.

There are so many crashes, they put up signs, warning lights, and now they are putting in two new sets of stoplights in a three block stretch to slow the traffic down.

Why should they be punishing good drivers like myself, as well as impacting the environment with more exhaust, just because we can't punish the speeders?

Let them pay the automatic fines from the photo radar, and when the bills add up, they'll slow down, and if they don't, then put them in jail for 30 days to think about it.

Iceman

[mo32a]

How many kids are actually injured in school zones?

Is it an epidemic, or merely a perception?

I can see lawsuits happening if somebody has an accident or suffers a heart attack by virtue of this display.

Most schools are not located on main thoroughfares so most of the people transiting the area are the very parents of the kids in the school. Our old hood looked like a racetrack as mom went speeding through it, talking on the cell phone, although she just left the house a minute ago, to get her kids to school on time.

[Kip Powick]

The problem is that the idiot parents or idiot drivers are not the ones who "un"-survive for their lack of oversight. I guess if one were to take the theory to its limit, one might say that the child carries the idiot genes of their parents and would be just as stupid when they grew up, thus making the theory work. But a bit harsh of a preemptive strike, IMO.

Not at all, (preemptive strike), and let me clarify that my remark was intended for the 'parents'....after all it can be safely said that most children are the product of their environment...

Let me give you a few items to ponder which concern water safety, for example......having been involved with that activity for over half a century.

A 21 year old, a few weeks ago, stands up in a canoe to relieve himself.....in 20 kt winds....he falls overboard...drowns....100 feet from shore. Life Jacket found in the empty canoe.

An 18 year old decides to impress his friends with his diving ability, (four persons), and dives off a small motor boat into..... 3 feet of water.....crippled for life.

Last week a 9 year old is out in his fathers Zodiac which has a 9.9HP motor on it and is attempting to get the Zodiac to "plane". It is windy and it is rough, he heads into wind, the wind catches the bow and the Zodiac becomes a kite with the kid thrown out and underneath it. No life jacket on the kid or in the Zodiac. The father and mother are on a dock 300 feet away but seeing as the kid has/had the Zodiac they have no immediate means to go rescue the screaming and crying child. They would be required to untie their cruiser flash up the engine and get out from all the boats in a very short period of time. Fortunately one of us that has a "tender" and saw the incident, flashed up the 40HP and went and retrieved the child.

A small day cruiser idles by the docks.....It has a ETec 125hp on the back. The father is standing back by the engine with a drink, (of what?) in his hand talking to his buddy who is standing on the other side of the outboard. At the helm, standing on the seat so she can see over the dash board is a young girl that I would guess is about 7 or 8. The kid leans on the throttle, not intentionally I am sure, but the boat bolts ahead...Daddy topples out the stern. The other guy hangs on and gets to the throttle before the boat slams into another set of docks. Daddy swims to the boat...all is well.

Yes, kids will be kids, but in all these incidents, where was the parental guidance about safety in, on and near the water? I have adult/married children, all raised in, on, and near the water and they were TAUGHT the safety aspects of the liquid. Our own parenting came home to us the other day when my 3 year old granddaughter was on our boat and her father, (my son) would not allow her outside the main cabin without a life jacket on, AND an adult with her.

[inchman]

Hey Kip,

My point was that the parents fit the Darwinian mold in these cases by not providing any basic guidance, but the kids end up paying the price.

So, we're in the same ballpark.

[J.O.]

Far be it for me to declare that all things British are the best thing going (can you say Lucas electrics?), but our friends in the UK have it right when it comes to speed cameras (Jeremy Clarkson notwithstanding). They put them up with nice big signs to warn you that it's ahead and they're mounted on a big yellow box or pedestal that is very hard to miss. The rates of speed related accidents in the monitored areas have been steadily decreasing and the cost of maintaining them is less than the fines they generate. Ontario blew it years ago when the photo radar trial was scrapped by the "common sense" revolution (a true oxymoron, IMHO). Every school zone and playground area should have one and the fines should be hefty.

[boestar]

Yes, Having spent considerable time on UK roads over the last few years I can attest that the speed cameras DO work. This hitch is that there may or may not be a camera in that box at any given time. That way you do not know if it will get you or not. I know that in town the speed limits are closely followed...Not so much on the motorways.

[boestar]

now far be it from me to give the government a way to generate revenue at my expense but on the 407 toll highway you are charged by video Toll. the system marks ou r time and mileage. A fair fine system is to ticket you over the whole trip not just instanttaneously.

Velocity = distance/time.

Average speed is usually lower than at the point the radar gets you.

[Mitch Cronin]

now far be it from me to give the government a way to generate revenue at my expense but on the 407 toll highway you are charged by video Toll. the system marks ou r time and mileage. A fair fine system is to ticket you over the whole trip not just instanttaneously.

Velocity = distance/time.

Average speed is usually lower than at the point the radar gets you.

Woah-Woah, Tabernac! ....you've come from trying to save kids from getting hit in school zones to speed cameras on motorways and now taking average speeds on the flippin' 407???!!

That's just nuts!

Yes, please, nail the ditzes and dolts who whip through the school zones (or any residential area at all!), but the danged highways do NOT need speed controls increased! What they need is lane enforcement and more education on proper driving techniques.... things like lane handling, proper merging, proper techniques for avoiding creating problems for other drivers....

Personally, I will ALWAYS slow to the speed limits in residential areas... but I'll often do a buck forty or better on the 407. I stay wide awake that way, and I see all manner of idiotic driving that causes others to change plans (often suddenly), that you folks who scream 'Damn the speeders!' probably don't even notice(?). You want to crawl along at 100 kph on a highway that'd be safe at 300, fine... but do so in the far right lane, will you please? (I sometimes do that myself).... and then move over one to the left when you see someone entering who'll need a spot in that lane as you're approaching.

Good driving includes not ever making yourself an obstacle to other drivers... (which, rather neatly, happens to be quite easy to do at 140 on that particular highway)

Don't like speed? STFO the highways. Wanna speed through a school zone? Burn baby burn!

....at least, that'd be my opinion.

PS.... Jeff, those speed camera vans on the highway were a licence to go as fast as you wanted! No real cops present, and all you had to do was get beside someone as you went past the van. ...even if you were doing 500kph more than him, you'd be safe, 'cause they couldn't prove which one of you was the speeder.

[Kip Powick]

PS.... Jeff, those speed camera vans on the highway were a licence to go as fast as you wanted! No real cops present, and all you had to do was get beside someone as you went past the van. ...even if you were doing 500kph more than him, you'd be safe, 'cause they couldn't prove which one of you was the speeder

On the 401, which I travelled when photo radar was in vogue was easily defeated. We always knew where they were. Local radio Stations would advise drivers and best of all were the 18 wheelers with the CB sets.

The cops I talked to,(OPP) were not impressed with the whole procedure when tasked to sit in a van and take photos during their highway patrol assignment.

[Moon The Loon]

now far be it from me to give the government a way to generate revenue at my expense but on the 407 toll highway you are charged by video Toll. the system marks ou r time and mileage. A fair fine system is to ticket you over the whole trip not just instanttaneously.

Velocity = distance/time.

Average speed is usually lower than at the point the radar gets you.

That is actually how some of the Brit cameras work.

I agree with many of the opinions expressed above, but the idea of this "one-off" example was to raise consciousness both by shock value and media exposure. If speeds are lowered as a result of this rise in consciousness by any who are exposed either to the image or the press covering the image, then it is worth considering it a successful demonstration.

Probably wouldn't work a second time though.

[boestar]

Many GPS units can be loaded with camera locations for the reason of making people slow down in those areas. It is a good system and it works.

Mitch: I AGREE WITH YOU. It was a devils advocate thing. I routinely drive at 120 - 140 as well. I agree that the concentration should be on lane enforcement and agressive driving. IMHO the speed limit should be pushed to 120 Km/h and the other laws enforced.

Speeding does NOT CAUSE ACCIDENTS.... Accidents are caused by poor or inattentive drivers. Speed does increase the likley hood of a more severe accident. Most accidents occur at speeds in the 40 - 60 km/h range Not at 100+. The 100+ accidents are the ones the media and police hype up to get people to slow down.

The speed limit on the 401 through the city could be 1000 Km/h and you will still be doing 20 or less most of the time anyhow...