Innovative Way of Stopping Car Speeding
- Thread starter Leper
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Brendan Burgess
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Might people jam on the brakes though?
Brendan
Brendan
. . . that's probably the whole idea.
In Spain there are many elevated zebra crossings with warning signs for drivers. If you speed into these zebra crossings your car's suspension may suffer not to mention the scrapes to the front underside (and if you car is rented then you have to pay for the damage and respraying .
Those Spanish crossings can seem lethal - for the pedestrian! They are often at large junctions, just before a roundabout, and you can see people jamming on when pedestrians are crossing. When I do use them as a pedestrian, I am very careful, and you can tell as a driver, that non-nationals in hire cars are sometimes caught out by them. In fairness tho, Spanish motorways can be a bit odd, with cyclists and walkers using them routinely to get from A-B, often walking on the inside lane on national roads.
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Those Spanish crossings can seem lethal, for the pedestrian! They are often at large junctions, just before a roundabout, and you can see people jamming on when pedestrians are crossing. When I do use them as a pedestrian, I am very careful, and you can tell as a driver, that non-nationals in hire cars are sometimes caught out by them. In fairness tho, Spanish motorways can be a bit odd, with cyclists and walkers using them routinely to get from A-B, often walking on the inside lane on national roads.
You're right Horusd. Usually, one of the walkers entry to the Spanish pedestrian crossings can be obliterated by a large communal municipal waste bin. The Spanish speed limit in such areas is lower than that in Ireland. One hint for anybody using pedestrian crossings in Spain:- Be very careful coming up to siesta where the Spaniard motorist is rushing home. At the end of siesta the Spaniard is not in such a hurry driving back to work.
The non pay motorways are well policed by La Guardia Civil in cars and motor-bikes. However, (Horusd is right again) the Spaniard motorists don't to use tolled motorways except in exceptional circumstances. Consequently, the motorised traffic is not too heavy and Spanish pedestrians and cyclists are seen using shortcuts. Currently, there is much appeal in Spain to have many tolled roads converted to non-pay roads.
The shadows are wrong. The two on the left are done as if the sun is to the left and the two on the right as if the sun is to the right. Drove me bonkers looking a them.
Well spotted Cremeegg, but note the zebra crossings is being painted in late evening and the shadows are supposed to be caused by public lighting on either side. But, I wish I had you around for my art class where I am having some difficulty with shadow and reflection.
9 times out of 10 if anyone flies past me on the M way they are probably driving an Audi or a BMW or maybe an old VW passatt. I do wonder if an additional test for driving a car over a certain power is needed?. I drive over 100km a day on the Mway and there are some serious nutters out there driving at crazy speeds.
Or we could just ban all Audi and BMW drivers
Or we could just ban all Audi and BMW drivers
You would be right if they were painting them as if they were on the ground - take another look at them but imagine the white blocks to be floating above the ground - with the light source directly overhead. From the perspective of the photo, the shadows on either side would look as they have painted them
While I applaud any effort to get drivers to slow down and drive in a considerate manner, I think these crossings are not the way to do it. As humans (or any animals or birds for that matter), as soon as our brain understands that they are just painted, they are subconsciously ignored and filed away in the "won't harm or kill me" drawer of the brain. e.g. those fake birds on boats that seagulls ignore, or the crows sitting on top of scarecrows.
What they should do is randomly actually have ones that are raised. That would keep them in the "are they/aren't they going to kill me?" part at the forefront of the brain.
What they should do is randomly actually have ones that are raised. That would keep them in the "are they/aren't they going to kill me?" part at the forefront of the brain.