3D Crosswalk in Iceland Helps Slow Down Speeding Motorists

Megalith

Megalith

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Iceland’s first-ever “3D crosswalk” has debuted in the small fishing town of Isafjordur: painted to look like it is hovering over the street, the crosswalk is intended to slow down traffic and reduce driving speeds in the narrow residential streets of the old town.

...in the narrow residential streets in the old village in downtown Isafjordur, a speed limit of 30 kmh (18.6 mph) is simply too high, and other ways must therefore be found to slow motorists down even further. The municipal council has not decided whether more 3D crosswalks will be added in Isafjordur, but if the experiment proves successful, more might indeed follow. Similar crosswalks have been painted in Russia, India, and China.
 
speed mines.png
 
You could shoot tennis balls from the crosswalk, that sounds cool.
 
RogueTadhg said:
No kidding some pot holes are spine-shattering bad. I cringe to think if I was in a low-sports car.
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Thats why i got rid of my 91 IROC-Z. Suspension was just too stiff. Every-time I hit a big pothole I felt like the struts were going to smash through the strut towers. It was literally anus clenching.

Eventually it just gets annoying to drive. All my cars used to be sports cars, but the IROC was the worst.

I have since switch to midsize trucks and wont look back. (Although I do want a 370Z for weekend driving)
 
18.6mph is simply too fast? Good god what pussies. And I'm not sure if they tested it on a much wider street but the street they show in the pictures with the cross walk is far from narrow.
 
Why not widen the streets?
Paint fake 3d images of people in the cross walks. I'm sure that will get people to slow down as well, but then when there's real people or real obstacles in the road they'll be desensitized. GG
 
sfsuphysics said:
18.6mph is simply too fast? Good god what pussies. And I'm not sure if they tested it on a much wider street but the street they show in the pictures with the cross walk is far from narrow.
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That is what I thought also. Reminds me of a person last week that I went past on my way to work. She was walking her kids to school and I went by going less than 20mph (in a 25mph zone) with them being 15+ feet from the road and she started to motion at me to slow down. Short of putting the car in neutral and pushing it not sure how slow some people think you should / could go.

Gigus Fire said:
Why not widen the streets?
Paint fake 3d images of people in the cross walks. I'm sure that will get people to slow down as well, but then when there's real people or real obstacles in the road they'll be desensitized. GG
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Or put in speed bumps. This "trick" works the first time somebody drives through. But then they will know that it isn't real and go the same speed as before. But then like you said if something really was in the road they are going to assume it is another illusion at first and hit it before they realize that it is a real item. The point of speed bumps is to give a bump that you have to slow down when going over, so we already have technology to fix their issue.
 
So if a motorcyclist without a clue of this chicanery, sees it at the last second as an obstacle and swerves to avoid it, crashes or takes out a baby in a carriage, who does the finger get pointed at for fault?
 
RayderR6 said:
So if a motorcyclist without a clue of this chicanery, sees it at the last second as an obstacle and swerves to avoid it, crashes or takes out a baby in a carriage, who does the finger get pointed at for fault?
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That is the point, they don't want people to know about it. They want people to think there are actual objects in the road and slow down to avoid hitting them only to then realize once they get close that they are not really objects in the road but is just a paint job. If you knew about it you wouldn't bother to slow down.
 
"Heheh nice attempt, brain, I was sure the acid has long since worn off." *accelerates*
 
Exavior said:
That is the point, they don't want people to know about it. They want people to think there are actual objects in the road and slow down to avoid hitting them only to then realize once they get close that they are not really objects in the road but is just a paint job. If you knew about it you wouldn't bother to slow down.
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might as well build a speed bump if that is the intention. Then every vehicle will be forced to slow down. Even those half inch high strips will do the trick.
 
theBrownLlama said:
might as well build a speed bump if that is the intention. Then every vehicle will be forced to slow down. Even those half inch high strips will do the trick.
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that is what I said further above. I don't understand the reason of trying to create a new and poorer version of something that already exist. it is like trying to create a way to swat flies and other bugs using a piece of string and paper towel instead of a fly swatter. Speed bumps would give them exactly what they want so why try to create new idiotic ways to slow down drivers.
 
Gigus Fire said:
Why not widen the streets?
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Because there's no room for it!
Icelanders live "between fjord and mountain" and in this NW region that stretch is like 200m wide, and the town centre is located on a small peninsula.
You can see the entire town here.

Exavior said:
Or put in speed bumps. This "trick" works the first time somebody drives through. ...
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I agree that this illusion will only work a couple of times for drivers that pass there often. I think the speed problem lies more with the heap of tourists that come and don't realise the dangers. (Just like they're often not used to drive on gravel roads and pass single lane bridges on the main roads.)

Speed bumps are used frequently all over Iceland, and I can't see it being used effectively for this low speed.
Most Icelandic speed bumps are used on roads with a speed limit of 50kph (30mph). If you drive a regular car and pass such a bump at 50 kph the car will be severely damaged. At 30 kph the suspension will compress fully. At 25 kph it's rough going. 20 kph is a comfortable speed for passing those bumps.
The reason for the speed bumps being so harsh is that many Icelanders drive off road vehicles with large tyres, such as this taxi:
Taxi.jpg

Just think what it would take to make a speed bump to make this vehicle slow down to below 30 kph, and then also make it passable to regular cars...
 
leeleatherwood said:
Thats why i got rid of my 91 IROC-Z. Suspension was just too stiff. Every-time I hit a big pothole I felt like the struts were going to smash through the strut towers. It was literally anus clenching.

Eventually it just gets annoying to drive. All my cars used to be sports cars, but the IROC was the worst.

I have since switch to midsize trucks and wont look back. (Although I do want a 370Z for weekend driving)
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91 IROC-Z? Um the last IROC-Zs were built at the end of 1989 and there was certainly no 1991 model.
 
Olle P said:
Because there's no room for it!
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I disagree. I was thinking this was a old brick town with lots of history. There's lots of room for it. It'll be expensive as hell, but it was bad city planning to let it get to this point anyways. Just modify the existing structures on one side and build up or down.
 
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