Can Funny Traffic Signs Save Drivers' Lives?

The Vision Zero campaign aims to eliminate traffic deaths around the world. So far, Hoboken has made several changes to its streets and transportation policies to increase safety, such as repaving crosswalks to increase visibility, building curb extensions and adding bike lanes to roads. With these new safety measures in place, the city hasn’t reported a single traffic death since January 2017 and traffic-related injuries have dropped 41%.

American cars made since the early 1980s have carried ratings from the federal New Car Assessment Program, showing how risky they are to human life in a crash. NCAP ratings motivated a host of safety enhancements by manufacturers. Since the 1990s, similar programs in the European Union, China, Australia, Korea, and Japan have also rated vehicles' risks to pedestrians and bicyclists, and their fatalities have dropped. Not so in the U.S., where industry resistance has stalled expansion of NCAP ratings. Advocates hope the Biden Transportation Department will finally expand the program.

New York City's Asphalt Art Initiative - created by Bloomberg Philanthropies - addresses pedestrian and traffic safety by taking to the streets and creating visual traffic flows with just a can of paint. Simple designs create more space for pedestrians and signal to drivers a larger curb or pedestrian area. Now, the organization is working to bring the simple concept to other American cities.

Cobb County, Georgia installed new license plate surveillance technology, loaned to them by the Atlanta-based company, Flock Safety. After installation, the test area saw a dramatic decrease in crime, to which Flock took credit for but experts say the connection could be due to a number of things. Furthermore, while surveillance technology has been correlated with decreased crime, communities have called into question issues of personal privacy versus public safety.

In London, a new initiative called Junior Roadwatch is engaging children as traffic safety enforcers. Around one particularly busy and dangerous section of road, drivers who are caught speeding have two options: get a ticket or be questioned by a group of school-aged children. While newly developed, the initiative, devised by The Met Police and Transport for London, has stopped over 90 individuals for speeding, all of whom chose to answer questions from children about the consequences of their actions.

In an effort to promote safe driving, a local artist painted a three-dimensional crosswalk near an elementary school. The idea came from school-aged children, noticing the intersection needed improvements, who brought it to City Hall officials. This initiative is part of a larger trend in using optical illusions to bolster traffic safety around the world.

Rather than go through extensive urban planning processes to improve bus commute times, cities across the United States are simply relying on paint and human behavior to create dedicated bus lanes. Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and others have piloted these bus lanes by setting up cones or painting a bus-only corridor in traffic-heavy areas of the city, cutting down interactions between buses and other vehicles in order to make commuting more efficient.

In Lakewood, Colorado, Audi vehicles using new Vehicle-to-Everything technology tell drivers the ideal driving speed at which they can hit all green lights. The technology also counts down red light wait times and improves the traffic flow and congestion throughout the city.

Illinois and Massachusetts have adopted a new traffic safety measure in its road safety manuals. Coined the “Dutch reach,” the international maneuver consists of a person opening their car door with their far hand. Doing so makes people look over their shoulder, increasing the visibility of cyclists on the road. While it is a seemingly small response, it’s part of a larger, cultural shift towards bike safety and inclusivity.

The city of Durham implemented a series of behavioral and economic nudges to encourage drivers to use alternative modes of transportation to get downtown besides cars. For instance, drivers could opt in to receive emails about bike and bus routes or be entered to win a cash prize if they took the bus. Together, the initiatives helped decrease single-driver trips downtown by over five percent.