Our 3D illusion school zone pilot project in West Vancouver is attracting a lot of attention. No, that’s an understatement. It’s getting a crazy amount of attention. Not only is it being reported across BC and Canada, news outlets around the world are picking up the story as well.
Because this project is the first of its kind in Canada (and possibly the world), there are a lot of questions as well as some misinformation being circulated surrounding it. So here are the facts to help clarify any misunderstandings:
* Preventable, BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation, and the District of West Vancouver launched this pilot project as a back to school initiative to raise awareness about more kids on the streets this fall and drivers’ awareness in school zones during the critically important first week of back to school. This project will exist for one week only to capture drivers’ and pedestrians’ attention.* We started in April 2010 with careful consideration and planning that included discussions with the District of West Vancouver, parents, the school board, engineers, and police.* The District of West Vancouver engineers have done a full risk assessment of this initiative and are supportive of the concept and its implementation. Their helpful and professional advice led to additional safety measures including additional static and dynamic signage in advance of the image and a police presence. On-site monitoring of motorist behaviour has since confirmed that there has been absolutely no evidence of abrupt stopping or swerving by motorists. The police, traffic engineers, parents, and Preventable have been monitoring, and will continue to monitor, traffic around this 3D illusion.* The 2D decal gradually appears 3D to drivers approaching the image. A risk assessment of this project shows that drivers do not mistake this image for a real girl and can see the image 100 feet away. The image does not “jump-out” at drivers and there is no “startling effect”, the road conditions on 22nd Street are very good for this project, which is precisely why this location was selected. Sight lines are perfect northbound along the road and to the cross streets. Although the community continuously grapples with unsafe driving behaviours in this particular school zone, twenty-second (22nd) Street in West Vancouver has a very good vehicle crash record. The number of crashes since 1996 (the earliest year for which we have records) is insignificant. This is was also an important criteria in choosing the site as the best location for the project.* Preceding the illusion are clearly marked school zones signs (30 KM maximum speed limit), a cross walk, traffic calming curb extensions in advance of the illusion, and a Preventable signs that read, “You’re probably not expecting kids to run out on the road.” There is also a STOP sign at the end of the block. All these factors mean that motorists are slowing in anticipation of stopping regardless of the 3D illusion.* A public awareness program was started in advance of implementation of this project to inform drivers and the general public of the image.
Our aim at Preventable is to raise awareness about preventable injuries, get people talking about injuries and how they can be reduced, to move attitudes away from dangerous behaviour, and to inspire injury prevention.
We know this tactic in our campaign can seem a little strange to some. To be honest, we had our own concerns when we first thought about this concept. Love it, hate it, or just not sure yet, this project has people talking, and that’s the first step in what we need to do to shift people’s attitudes around children in school zone areas.
The next step is to hear from you. So now that you have the facts, we’d love to hear your thoughts on this project and all the injury prevention work that we do here at Preventable. Please leave your comments, and we’ll do our best to respond to them (strange or not).
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I applaud your innovative ‘outside the box’ proactive approach to this perennially tragic situation. Humans are very adaptable to dynamic situations (such as tour unique idea)and should have no problems in the learning curve. There is however, another step you must take to make this idea effective– you must also interrupt wireless voice and data in these critical ‘spot’ zones. It’s a scientifically proven fact that rapidly evolving traffic situations (eg:a child chasing a ball into the street)and a distracted driver’s exaggerated reaction is a volitile mixture…
I heard about this on The World radio program on KERA out of Dallas, TX. The speaker from your organization said that the little girl was cartoonlike and not a photo of a little girl, and would not be confused with a real child. The little girl in your photo looks real to me.
Perhaps a video of the effect would better serve as an illustration than the picture that is being used. I look forward to seeing more about this.
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Hello. I’m from the “hate” camp on this issue for 1.5 basic reasons:
a) False alarms destroy readiness (aka “The boy who cried wolf”). Why would you want to desensitize people to the image, even a stylized image, of a kid in the road? This will just train the brain to ignore that image. The signal will start out strong and then with repeated presentations will no longer register an alarm. Thus you’re basically training drivers’ brains that children in the road are not something to be alarmed about. While you’re at it perhaps you can also hang stylized pictures of STOP signs and red lights along the roads to bring attention to THOSE concepts as well. Also lobby to have smoke detectors changed to go off at random times, just to make sure that people pay more attention to them when there really IS a fire.
b) 30km/h is a ridiculously low speed limit for any public road. Sure, it’s great for the people on that block but it is an inconvenience for everyone else. Any speed limit below ~60km/h is just paranoia or a desire to make money through fines. If a paved city road is REALLY only safe below 30km/h (19 mph) should it even be open to motor-vehicle traffic?
Exactly how long do you believe it will take for humans to adapt and truly “expect a 3D image to run out into traffic,” one day actually, and tragically, being a young child?
This idea would be excellent if it were rather a large 3D Yield Sign in the middle of the road.
Any accident is tragic. Anything that will condition drivers to become accustomed to children playing on the road will eventually result in drivers taking less note of children on the road. Why are the children on the road on the first place?
Why not spend time and effort on initiatives that will result in long term changes in behaviour, such as parent and child education as well as greater physical calming measures such as speed bumps?
No one wants anyone to be injured, but this is a short term fix that will eventually cease to be effective.
Excellent idea.
Is it possible to order a few of these decals? Our french roads have the same speed problems. Thanks
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From the video, it appears to me that this image is after a crosswalk and there is no stop sign in sight. I would, likely, be mildly accelerating. Therefore, “motorists are slowing in anticipation of stopping regardless” is not true.
Great article about our pilot project in the Toronto Star – http://ht.ly/2ClCH
While I applaud your efforts, all this is doing is teaching people that you can ignore what you think might be a kid playing in the street. How about we just teach our children about the dangers of the street and supervise them accordingly.
[...] to increase driver vigilance but not cause people to swerve or slam on their brakes. A post on Preventable.CA provides more [...]
Clever idea, but instead of the image of a little girl playing in the street, try the image of a speed bump or speed table. That would get folks to slow down, rather than slam on the brakes. It is a less extreme approach, so it might cause less controversy…
Wow, thanks for all the comments everyone. I’d like to respond to a few. RA, Jim, and Sarah touch on the image “desensitizing” driver’s toward children being on the road. We took this concern seriously when the District of West Vancouver, parents, the school board, engineers, and the police discussed the project. This discussion and the fact that this is back to school initiative led to the decision to have the decal on the road for one week only. As mentioned, the police, traffic engineers, parents, and Preventable have been monitoring, and will continue to monitor, traffic around this 3D illusion to see if motorists are changing their behaviour around this school zone. We also ran a risk assessment of the decal that shows that drivers do not mistake this image for a real girl and can see the image 100 feet away. The point is that if a driver has eyesight that is good enough for them to be given a driver’s licence then they should be able to differentiate between a real little girl and and this illusion of one.
I’m from Texas, USA and I’ve just read about this on CNN. I think it is a great idea. I’m not sure if the danger of desensitizing drivers towards children in the road is that big. It probably would be higher if these images were everywhere. But if an image like this appears in special places such as school zones where you’re supposed to go fairly slowly anyway, it probably functions really well as a reminder of a possibility of a child on the road. However, if you’re speeding and the image does jump in front of you, it might give you a bit of a shock which, also, serves well as a reminder that there might be kids in the road. I applaud the idea. Maybe if it works out, making sure the images are different at different locations could help prevent the whole “desensitizing” issue.
A very noble initiative, but I’m completely confused as to why this initiative might be a success. From your own words “motorists are slowing in anticipation of stopping regardless of the 3D illusion”, so how does it prove that the image is helping raise awareness? Did you interview motorists before and after the decals were installed? Or perhaps the accident rate in the same area during the same period was compared? Were any human factors specialists consulted to determine if even one week of false alarms may / may not desensitize motorist? This is all besides the point that children who are not taught to be traffic aware today, will become motorists who are not pedestrians aware tomorrow. People do not all of a sudden grow up and magically gain situational awareness.
Those who find fault in the use of the decal miss the point; increasing driver awareness. If more drivers would engage their brains, and pay less attention to cell phones,radios,ect auto/ pedestrian accidents would drop dramatically.
Driving is a fulltime job requiring undivided attention. Desensitizing is NOT an issue; if drivers become less aware,they quite likely shouldn’t drive! Measures that highten awareness, make drivers cautious in these areas are as necessary as street/warning signs.
If this can slow down drivers and save even 1 life,it is worth it. Great idea,Preventable.ca .
My community is VERY interested in having this done on our streets. Too many speeders and DOT will not put in speed bumps. Who is doing this and how can I contact them?
[...] I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the purpose of the decal (which has now been removed after the week-long pilot) is to get people [...]
Can you post where you got the decal from? I would like to use something like this for our healthcare facility.
We’ve had a few requests for information on getting similar decals made. This particular decal was specially designed for us and isn’t available for purchase. We are looking into seeing if we can help those who have inquired about installing a similar illusion. We’ll let you know if and when this is possible.
[...] wide ranging. However, tomorrow’s program is all about avoiding emergencies, and Preventable’s 3D illusion campaign is being featured. The program airs at 3pm on Global TV. If it’s like the coverage we’ve [...]