Driving too fast in Canada? Officials in West Vancouver have developed a 3D optical illusion designed to scare the hell out of motorists: A child who darts out in front of your car.
Beginning next Tuesday, the city will confront drivers with a 3D image of a child chasing a ball into the street, a “lesson” to motorists to slow down. “We need to expect the unexpected because anything could happen, whether it is a 3D image on the road … or whether it’s a live child or a dog running in front of the car, these are all things that we have to be able to control for in a vehicle,” David Dunne of the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation told The Globe and Mail.
The break-slamming optical illusion cost about $15,000 to unleash on West Vancouver’s city streets, and will be put in place close to an Elementary School for about a week. The 3D image will appear when the driver is about 100 feet away. “You’ll see this image start to rise off the pavement and it will look like a little child is crossing the street. As you get closer to the image, the image recedes into the pavement,” Dunne told The Globe and Mail.
City officials went on to note that cars traveling at a safe speed will be able to stop in time, while those with lead feet might be left to slam on the breaks, or so we’d imagine. What they didn’t address is the possibility of injury to drivers who slam on their breaks after seeing what they think is a little girl running out in front of their car. And though we’re hoping motorists will be able to distinguish the illusion from a real child, advertising that ghost children will be running the streets of your city and that you’re to simply drive through them is in an alarming category all its own.
What could go wrong?
