Traffic-safetyexperts are getting creative when it comes to foiling speeding drivers who zoomdangerously through city neighborhoods. Most towns don't have enough police officers to actually catch manyspeeders, so they try to slow everyone down through what's called trafficcalming.
Somecommunities put up additional traffic lights or signs to force drivers to slowand stop more often. But this can leadto long, infuriating backups of cars.
Trafficcircles or zig-zag obstacle courses are other calming devices. They break up straight stretches of road,which are an open invitation to speeding. The traffic islands have the desired effect, but drivers tend to crashinto their raised curbs and flower beds.
Manytowns have tried speed bumps, or raised ridges in the road. If you ignore them, they produce ateeth-rattling bounce that can ruin shock absorbers and axles. The humps slow down, give a good jolt to,and irritate safe drivers, too, including those in emergency vehicles.
Thelatest, somewhat sneaky, speed-reducing innovation is . . . an opticalillusion! The National Highway TrafficSafety Administration is testing fake speed bumps! These are flat sheets of thermoplastic, laid across a street andembedded with designs that, from a distance, look like three-dimensionalpyramids, sticking up from the pavement. Who wouldn't slow down for that? And they cost a fraction of real humps in the road.
Butthere's one problem with these bumpy illusions: As the police trafficcoordinator in Phoenix, Ariz., told the Associated Press, They were great . . .until people found out what they were!
Oncethey do, determined speeders pay them no more mind than they would a prettylandscape scene, painted on the street.