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Fake Speed Bumps Don’t Fool Drivers for Long
Jul 03 2008 by Courtney Messenbaugh
7/3/08
Easy-to-Ignore Plastic Won’t Do the Trick
Philadelphia, aka the City of Brotherly Love, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are testing fake speed bumps across the city. It sounds befuddling at first — I mean, we all know there’s a huge market for fake designer handbags and certain body parts, but speed bumps? Philly has strategically placed the flat pieces of blue, white and orange plastic, which are designed to look like 3-D pyramids, around the city.
The trompe l’oeil bumps are being tested to see if they help slow down drivers and decrease pedestrian accidents. There’s another reason they appeal to the authorities; they cost about $60-$80 each, which is about $1,400 less than normal speeds bumps cost. That’s right, a regular asphalt speed bump can cost up to $1,500. It just goes to show that you always pay more for authenticity.
Phoenix tested faux speed bumps a couple of years ago. At first, the number of folks who obeyed the 25 mph speed limit nearly doubled. That is, until they figured the faux bumps out and slid back into their old speed-demon ways. Why would you stop for something that’s not really there? Besides the obvious answer that it’s the law, of course.
Philly authorities, however, have learned from Phoenix’s experience and launched a campaign to let drivers know that even though the speed bumps are fake, the police officers monitoring them are very real.
While I’m all for innovation, the Phoenix experience doth protest too much. The City of Brotherly Love could use a dose of motherly love and advice. This mother thinks it’s tough to change behaviors, especially when you’re faking out drivers. Given the preliminary anecdotal evidence, I would not want fake speed bumps in front of my house or my child’s school, at least until I see proven results pointing to permanent change. There really, truly ain’t nothing like the real thing, at least for now.
User Comments
so once is to slow down or actually stop like in a speed bump?
If cops really wanted to slow people down (as opposed to writing tickets for revenue enforcement) they’d just take an older squad car (the one with the vomit in the backseat and the leaky transmission) and park it in plain sight where they want people to slow down.
Juan Carlos, thanks for your question. The faux speed bumps are supposed to slow folks down. As I mention in the article, the evidence is as of yet inconclusive if they can do this consistently.
This is the start of a good idea. To make it complete they need to add additional movable real speed bumps that look like the drawings. Then just alternate them around. Keep speeders on their toes.