Vancouver's Solution to Speeding

[Greenday]

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/09/03/...t-of-your-car/

Quick sum up: in East Vancouver, they are going to somehow project holographic images on the road to make it look like stuff such as a kid running after a ball in the street or a dog running onto the street. As a result, drivers will have to slow down, making driving more safe, right?

How the hell could this possibly go wrong?

Stupid politicians.

[MadMike]

Wow, you can't make stuff like this up.

Let's see... someone could wreck because they slammed on the brakes and tried to swerve out of the way of the nonexistent kid. Yeah, I know I'm preaching to the choir here.

I always thought the U.S. had a monopoly on stupid politicians. Aparently not.

[Boozy]

If I'm driving safely and slowly, but I'm forced to break suddenly to avoid some hologram, the guy behind me who's speeding and following too closely will rear-end me.

This could cause a lot of fender-benders, and I'm not convinced that it will be only dangerous drivers who suffer.

[Rapscallion]

We have hologram technology good enough for this? Out in the open?

I'm behind the times in tech news, it would appear.

Rapscallion

[Hobbs]

If I'm driving safely and slowly, but I'm forced to break suddenly to avoid some hologram, the guy behind me who's speeding and following too closely will rear-end me.

This could cause a lot of fender-benders, and I'm not convinced that it will be only dangerous drivers who suffer.

Well, in Texas at least, it's always the fault of the person behind, so you wouldn't be liable legally. Okay, it's not silver lining, but it's something.

[Greenday]

I foresee a lot of accidents in the future. Even attentive drivers won't expect someone stopping for no apparent reason when there isn't a stop sign or a stop light.

[Mikkel]

And then when the speeders get used to driving through the kids running after a ball...

[Lachrymose]

Won't somebody please think of the holographic children?!

[Rageaholic]

We have hologram technology good enough for this? Out in the open?

I'm behind the times in tech news, it would appear.

Rapscallion

I'm curious about this too. Where would they place these? How many would they place? What a waste of technology!

[Racket_Man]

We have hologram technology good enough for this? Out in the open?

I'm behind the times in tech news, it would appear.

Rapscallion

DAMN I want this holo-deck technology for more useful purposes like games and pr0n and ......... and ..........

[BlaqueKatt]

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/09/03/...t-of-your-car/

Quick sum up: in East Vancouver, they are going to somehow project holographic images on the road to make it look like stuff such as a kid running after a ball in the street or a dog running onto the street. As a result, drivers will have to slow down, making driving more safe, right?

that's an odd interpretation of the article I just read(and from the responses not many others did):

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,”

so problems with your summary:
1 it's not a "hologram" it's a 3d optical illusion-similar to these chalk drawings
2-it will be in place for about a week
3-the running dog was mentioned as something that could happen in real life-not that they're putting any images of it out there
4-this is in a school zone to remind people why they should not be speeding through it-in other words if you are following the law the image that will be there for about a week-really shouldn't affect your driving.
5-this is being done by the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation-not a politician

so in summary-your summary is alarmist and does not contain anything factual from the article

[AdminAssistant]

$15,000!!!

Vancouver must be rolling in dough.

For that price, they could put a real life police officer at the elementary school during peak times. If speeding/reckless driving is such a problem, that's probably what they should be doing anyway.

[Greenday]

that's an odd interpretation of the article I just read(and from the responses not many others did):

so problems with your summary:
1 it's not a "hologram" it's a 3d optical illusion-similar to these chalk drawings
2-it will be in place for about a week
3-the running dog was mentioned as something that could happen in real life-not that they're putting any images of it out there
4-this is in a school zone to remind people why they should not be speeding through it-in other words if you are following the law the image that will be there for about a week-really shouldn't affect your driving.
5-this is being done by the BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation-not a politician

so in summary-your summary is alarmist and does not contain anything factual from the article

Hologram, optical illusion...same damn thing to be honest. And if it IS chalk...then why the hell are they paying $15,000 for it? What a joke.
A week is enough to cause havoc.
This is a stupid way to remind drivers that it's a school zone. If the flashing signs isn't enough, then this isn't going to do crap. Just raise fines for speeding in a school zone.
It shouldn't affect your driving? So if I see one of these optical illusions, I shouldn't stop short cause I think I'm about to hit a kid? That's unbelievable. People will slam on their breaks. People will rear end each other.
Doesn't matter who is doing it, they will, in the end, be the cause of the accidents.

[BlaqueKatt]

Hologram, optical illusion...same damn thing to be honest.

no it's not-as you get closer to the optical illusion it fades back into the pavement

hologram
   
a negative produced by exposing a high-resolution photographic plate, without camera or lens, near a subject illuminated by monochromatic, coherent radiation, as from a laser: when it is placed in a beam of coherent light a true three-dimensional image of the subject is formed.

optical illusion
a perception, as of visual stimuli, that represents what is perceived in a way different from the way it is in reality.

Just raise fines for speeding in a school zone.

yup that only affects those who are caught-and sadly the ones that don't get caught think it's perfectly ok to speed, as there are "no consequences to it"-this would wake them up a bit that yes there can be real consequences to breaking the law(no matter how inconvenient said law may be to the driver), and maybe, just maybe a real child getting hit may be avoided.

It shouldn't affect your driving? So if I see one of these optical illusions, I shouldn't stop short cause I think I'm about to hit a kid? That's unbelievable. People will slam on their breaks. People will rear end each other.

No it shouldn't-unless you are not abiding by the law-here's why:

you'll see it from 100 feet away-if you are going the speed limit you would not have to "slam on your brakes"-you would decelerate and the image would either fade back into the pavement or you'd realize it wasn't in motion as a real child would be.

not sure what the speed limit for school zones in Vancouver is but here it's about 20mph(32kph)-total braking distance(and not "slam on your brakes" braking distance) for that speed is 63 feet(that includes reaction time, well under the 100 feet you have)-in order to have to "slam on your brakes" to avoid hitting a child 100 feet ahead of your vehicle you would have to be going at least 10 mph(16kph) over the speed limit.

[draggar]

In south Florida we don't have a serious issue with speeder sin school zones. When you get to an active one, traffic slows down to a crawl. Why?

It is not uncommon to have police officers enforcing it - and the fines are HUGE. I got a warning once (the school zone lights were broken and there were no children out). He caught me doing 30 (below the posted 35 speed limit) in the 15 MpH zone.

If it was normal speeding then the fine would have been about $250 (15 over the limit). Since it was in a school zone then the fine would have been over $600.