PHILADELPHIA — Cathy Campbell did a double-take and tapped the brakes when she spotted what appeared to be a pointy-edged box lying in the road just ahead. She got fooled.
It was a fake speed bump, a flat piece of plastic that is designed to look like a 3-D pyramid from afar when applied to the pavement. The optical illusion is one of the latest innovations being tested in Philadelphia and across the country to discourage speeding.
The 3-D markings are appealing because, at $60 to $80 each, they cost a fraction of real speed bumps (which can run $1,000 to $1,500), said Richard Simon, deputy regional administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
On one of the streets tested in Phoenix, the percentage of drivers who obeyed the 25 mph speed limit nearly doubled. “Initially they were great,” said the police traffic coordinator, Officer Terry Sills. “Until people found out what they were.” The Associated Press
