Thursday 2 February 2012

Invisible traffic calming

I wonder if you could design subtle traffic calming like long wavy roads that you only notice at speed. That is, when you travel at the speed limit, you don't notice anything unusual about the road, but as soon as you go over the limit, it starts feeling funny because you're encountering subtle bumps and curves just a bit too quickly. It should make you subconsciously want to slow down and obey the limit.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - In practice, it would probably be too small a change to notice and be effective.
PPS - But it would be interesting to try.

4 comments:

Miv said...

I swear that something like this has been employed on the road to Samford. If you drive above 80kmh there is an audible hum which disappears once your speed drops.

John said...

Interesting. Can't say I've gone that way myself recently, though. Is there anything visible, such as grooves across the road?

Miv said...

I haven't stopped to investigate closely but when passing there appears to be bands or ridges within the bitumin.

John said...

Makes sense. It's about the only way you could make a noise like that. I wonder if it's deliberate.