What's Wrong With This Picture: The Modern Speedbump Edition

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Discovered by Discover Magazine, this “speed bump” in a Vancouver BC parking garage is the creepiest application of the “trompe-l’œil speedbump” technology to date. Apparently,

the girl’s elongated form appears to rise from the ground as cars approach, reaching 3D realism at around 100 feet, and then returning to 2D distortion once cars pass that ideal viewing distance. Its designers created the image to give drivers who travel at the street’s recommended 18 miles per hour (30 km per hour) enough time to stop before hitting Pavement Patty–acknowledging the spectacle before they continue to safely roll over her.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Sinistermisterman Sinistermisterman on Sep 21, 2010

    This will do sweet diddly-squat. Most Vancouver drivers are barely aware they're behind the wheel of a car, let alone anything beyond the bonnet. No offence, but having driven in many different cities all around the world, the 2 years I've spent driving in Vancouver are by far and away the most terrifying.

  • JimothyLite JimothyLite on Sep 21, 2010

    Fading little girl in gravity boots playing with pink inflatable surfboard in parking structure. Kids these days.

  • Shaker Shaker on Sep 21, 2010

    Poor girl - flattened by the fastest steamroller in the world. Probably the same one as driven by the Joker, when he turned Batman and Robin into Flatman and Ribbon... Glad to see that the fellow that makes all of that "sidewalk art" featured in e-mails has finally found gainful employment - not to last, though, when bright cones placed in school zones during hours (but removed when school is out) would do a better job, as drivers notice changes in the road, even the one they take every day. This thing would become inured in driver's minds, and lose its effect (as mentioned by the B&B previously)

  • John Fritz John Fritz on Sep 21, 2010

    Two words: Punch it.

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