BBC - Future - The tricks being played on you by UK roads - 0 views
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When you walk or drive in the UK, you’re being nudged by dozens of hidden messages embedded in the roads and pavements.
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He suffers from a rare inherited condition that leaves him only able to make out vague colour contrasts around him. Yet he is able to safely pick his way through the hectic city streets, thanks to dozens of hidden messages embedded in our roads and pavements that few of us even notice are there.
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This subtle form of communication is not just confined to the pavement, either: increasingly, motorists and cyclists are also unknowingly being told what to do.
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A horizontal pattern of raised lines going across the pavement tells blind pedestrians they are on the footpath side; raised lines running along the direction of travel indicate the side designated for cycles. A wide, raised line divides the two.
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Because the raised bumps are unpleasant to ride across, cyclists instinctively are drawn toward the tramline pattern which runs in the same direction as they are traveling.
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Elsewhere, it is possible to find raised, rounded ribs running across pavement, creating a corduroy pattern. They look like they might be there to provide additional grip; in fact, they are sending a warning to anyone who stands on them about what is ahead.
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The idea is to guide people through busy areas and around objects by drawing them along these raised lines.
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They found that uncertainty about the layout of the road ahead is a powerful way of getting drivers to slow down.
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triangles painted along the edge of each road – create an impression of a narrower road for example, and make drivers more cautious.
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They have been painting boxes onto the road that use a clever combination of white and dark paint to create the illusion of a speed hump.
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In India, they have taken things even further by painting deliberate optical illusions to give the impression that obstacles are in the road ahead.
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This article talks about basically human perception and pattern recognition, and how this helps people who do not have all senses, like being blind. Bumps and grooves in the roads we walk on tell us, without us realizing it, what side we should be on and where there are stairs or platforms. It is interesting that there are patterns with these, as mentioned in the article, but everyday pedestrians do not really notice these patterns, and yet they are there to help us. Another interesting thing was the use of perception, and creating illusions of speed bumps or things in the road to get drivers to slow down. Here they play with perception to create an illusion of a speed bump and make traffic safer. sometimes what we think of as our perception incapabilities actually help us without realizing it.