At a school in West Vancouver, a painting on the road is being used to slow down drivers. The inartfully named “Pavement Patty” is a trompe l’oeil, an optical illusion which looks like a real child in the road as cars approach. The intended effect is that drivers will slow down before proceeding.
Pavement Patty and her pink ball.
Of course for anyone who wants to mow down small children, this tease may cause more speeding, not less. While no one who’s actually seen it has weighed in, reactions from the peanut gallery have been fairly negative, as seen in the comments on the Discoblog post. On the Internet, everyone’s got an opinion and they’re all experts.
Do note, the linked article (and many others) show the illusion placed non-sensically in a parking garage. The image above is from the actual school, and was found on the preventable.ca website, which also shows a illustrative video of the effect.
