Innovative traffic solution saves lives in India!
Imagine driving on a road in your car when suddenly you are faced with a crosswalk so high that the zebra stripes seem to float in the air!
What would you do? Probably, if you do not want to destroy your car and you do not want to hurt yourself, you will slow down before it is too late.
This is the latest find by some Indian engineers to reduce the speed of vehicles at certain points in the cities. What's new? Well, that the whole thing is just an optical illusion!
The Minister of Transport welcomed the proposal of two Indian women who had the idea of simply creating an optical illusion.
Saumya Pandya Thakkar (on the right) a 28-year-old local artist with the help of Shakuntala Pandya, (on the left) her 60-year-old mother came up with the idea of creating obstacles in the road, which force the driver to stop when approaching the zebra stripes.
The zebra stripes are only apparently elevated but this is enough to slow down speeding drivers.
As a matter of fact, India is the country with the highest number of car accidents in the world! Only recently have crosswalks with painted zebra stripes been introduced on roads and in city traffic. However, this measure was apparently not enough to protect pedestrians from breakneck speed drivers.
Opponents of this project argue that this is only a temporary success. Soon everyone will go back to speed driving on the roads and in traffic.
In any case, the initial success is undeniable and even the numbers support the effectiveness of the 3D crosswalk zebra stripes. The project has also been copied by other countries (Kyrgyzstan and China) and is appreciated by pedestrians who take advantage to get an optical illusion photo of themselves standing on a 3D crosswalk!
