Saturday, September 18, 2010

Canadian Ingenuity

Authorities in West Vancouver, Canada, were concerned with drivers not slowing down for traditional speed bumps. They were particularly worried about speed bumps near schools. They immediately put the Canadian ingenuity to work. Bingo. The town unveiled a new way for drivers to slow down near an elementary school. It is a 2-D image of a child playing, creating the illusion that approaching driver will soon hit a child.

According to officials, the pavement painting appears to rise up as the driver gets closer to it, reaching full 3-D realism at around 100 feet.

I have the following thoughts:

The drivers may think it is actually a child and slow down one or two times. Once they are used to it, they won’t slow down because they know it is not a real child. What happens if a real child was crossing the street and a driver thought it is another 2-D image and hit the child?

Here are some comments from other readers:

That is the most DUMB idea us Canadians have had!!!!!!!

Yeah, great. I would see this, slam on my brakes, and possibly swerve. This will not end well.

Did Bush come up with this? I blame Bush.

Isn't it winter in Canada for part of the school year? How is it going to work if she is covered in snow or slush? Not to mention normal daily road grime.

I can see a drunk driver swerving to avoid this and running down the real people on the sidewalk after losing control of the vehicle.

What are you guys complaining about? I love this idea.

So that's a ball? I thought it was a skateboard. And really, who would think this was a real child with those huge feet?

This is remarkably creepy.

All governments are run by educated idiots without the education.

Why fix what ain't broken?

36 comments:

  1. SG! Looks like it is a lose-lose situation.

    ~ NRIGirl

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  2. Thanks for your comments NRIGirl. Sure it is.

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  3. Thanks for your comments A. I know it won't work.

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  4. this is a brilliant idea gone wrong because of evil machinations of the human race.. ok,kidding ..but the idea is brilliant !

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  5. dumb idea..may work only for the first time..I agree with all comments from other readers.

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  6. yeah..its a great idea...but as soon as it becomes familiar to the drivers,,its more or less useless.
    it is grt that the leader's there atleast think over such issues and execute ideas..
    Wished the Indian netas learn from them and wake from their laziness

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  7. btw,, thanks for your comment on my post

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  8. well seems people aren't so excited abt the new idea :)

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  9. How this would work on Indian roads? :). First of all,there must be roads.

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  10. Thanks for your comments Bedazzled. The idea is brilliant but not many people think it will do any good.

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  11. Thanks for your comments Rahul. You are correct. It will work only a couple of times.

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  12. Thanks for your comments Revathi. You are correct. There in Canada, leaders think about such issues and try to come up with some solution.

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  13. Thanks for your comments Rajlakshmi. People in Canada are excited about new ideas. But they think this is a dumb idea.

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  14. Thanks for your comments Chitra. You are correct. Suvar irunthal than chittiram varaiya mudiyum. (First, you have to have a wall to make a drawing on the wall.) First, you have to have a road to install a speed bump.

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  15. Fines and the occasional visit from uncle cop are the only way out. Sorry Canada.

    Some of the readers comments you mentioned in the post are hilarious.

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  16. Thanks for your comments Geeta. Like you said, have a cop nearby when the school is in session and the problem is solved.

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  17. So many possibilities that the idea would not work :D

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  18. from a distance it sure would look as if its a girl..nice idea. I remember this ad on road safety and speeding, where they had a dead body in a while shroud lying on each zebra crossing, it send out a strong message...creativity can play a strong role in changing society for the better!

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  19. I totally agree with your reader The madrasi. Many ideas may turn out to be dumb, but giving up all thoughts would be very bad. At least by constantly thinking about this problem, with the intention of finding some feasible solution, even if some ideas don't turn out to be good in the long run, these people are exercising their brains, and that has to be appreciated.

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  20. What would happen if a driver travelling at speed was to think he was about to hit a child? He/she could slam on the brakes causing others to crash into him/her. OR Thinking they were about to hit a child they could swerve causing an accident.

    I'm not a driver so don't know how realistic my worries are but they were the first things to come into my mind on reading your post.

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  21. yes i agree with you
    what if there is real child.
    They just need to increase the fines 1000 times and see no one dares to go fast.
    In this case authorities need to check who got this contract of 3d image, is he related with government officials kin or friend.
    I smell corruption

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  22. All that says to me is that the West Van government has way too much money (and they do, I'm from the next suburb over). You don't need ridiculous technology to make people slow down. In Mexico they just make the speed bumps so enormous that you'd tear out the bottom of your car if you sped over them.

    Oh, and it hardly ever snows in Vancouver, so that wouldn't be a problem. But the other problems I agree with.

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  23. Thanks for your comments Titaxy. This idea will not work. You are right.

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  24. Thanks for your comments Sana. Yes, creativity can play a strong role. But it should be the right one.

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  25. Thanks for your comments Rama. These Canadian officials should get an A for trying.

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  26. Thanks for your comments Tracy. Your worries are very realistic.

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  27. Thanks for your comments SM. No need for heavy fines. As Geeta said put a cop near the school for a few days. Everything will be alright.

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  28. Thanks for your comments Emily. I was eagerly looking forward to your comments because I know you are from Canada. May be Canadians should use Mexican style speed bumps.

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  29. Idea is pretty good. Hope it works well.
    You are welcome in my new post -
    http://urmi-z-unique.blogspot.com/
    http://amazing-shot.blogspot.com/

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  30. not a bad idea if it works out..actually, idea is good or bad - it depends on that factor only right? I remembered one quote after looking at the fake child image:

    Don't cheat. The government hates competition.

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  31. Thanks for your comments Kiran. It won't work, I think.

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  32. Thanks for your comments Babli. I want it to work. But I doubt. After one or two times, people will take it for granted.

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  33. Thanks for your comments Neha. And, welcome back. Missed you here. Your quote is excellent. Will apply to all the governments in this world.

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  34. Its a total dumb idea and may creat more problems and hurt real people.

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