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The people of Ísafjörður, Iceland, have figured out a pretty inventive way of making crosswalks safer for pedestrians. A 3-D crosswalk zebra has been painted on streets to slow traffic instead of the normal white stripes. This 3-D crosswalk zebra is incredible! When viewed from either side or above the road, the talent of the designer is apparent. Even while knowing the road is flat and there are no objects sitting on the pavement, we still get tripped out looking at them. At all angles, it looks like there are big white rectangles suspended in the air above the road.
The idea was to get people unfamiliar with the small towns roads to slow down. There have been incidents of travelers careening around the small town and hurting unsuspecting pedestrians crossing the road. While some detractors say a physical speed bump may be better, speed bumps have been known to cause damage to cars. The crosswalk is now an optical illusion that will make people take pause before speeding through the busy intersections.
Think how cool the cover of Abbey Road would have been on this crosswalk. The album cover was awesome, no doubt, but add the element of being suspended in the air gives it a new dynamic feel. If only, right?
The main attraction to this effect is that it is extremely low budget compared to possibly installing a traffic light and cluttering up the block. It preserves the town's natural beauty and picturesque landscape while still accomplishing the goal of slowing drivers down.Artists from around the world have been finding new work incorporating their skill into public works products. Several walls that used to house graffiti have now been turned into city landmarks after an artist produced a work paying tribute to the residents and culture of that city. This 3-D crosswalk zebra is just the latest and most innovative in a growing trend.
We've long been taught that technology will take over culture because the two can't co-exist, and one will eventually cave to the other. These artists are proving the world wrong with their inventive solutions to modern problems. The 3-D Crosswalk Zebra is a great example of the blending of creativity and our technological world. Takeaway advice on this one: If you're driving one of our top 10 muscle cars, maybe don't gun it around corners in Iceland.
