The Outback Queensland town of Boulia is hoping that new and unconventional zebra crossings will help keep pedestrians safe … and draw in curious tourists.
The crossings are painted to appear three-dimensional, offering an optical illusion in which white blocks appear to rise up from the road.
There are similar crossings in Iceland, Malaysia, India, New Zealand and the United States … but the central-west Queensland town is the first to introduce them in Australia.
“If we put it around our hospitals and our schools, it’ll just jog people’s memory that they’re in a school zone and really think about where they’re driving,” Boulia Shire Council Mayor, Rick Britton, told the ABC. “I thought that’d be a great idea in a little outback town like ours.”
And Councillor Britton said the crossing would serve as an attraction for tourists visiting the region and could open conversation about more street art in Boulia.
“If tourists want to drive around and see our town, they’ll see this quirky zebra crossing and it’ll be a conversation piece,” he told the ABC. “We’d love to start seeing murals on walls instead of having blank corrugated iron sheds … something that students or people can put together with council partnership.”
Queensland University of Technology’s Dr Mark King, who works for the Centre for Accident Research Road Safety Queensland, told the ABC that it was hard to tell whether the project would work.
“It will be something very noticeable which can do one of two things: people might become distracted, on the other hand you’re noticing the crossing, so people may slow down,” he said. “It is possible it could be distracting but one of the things that mitigate that a bit is that you’re looking at the pedestrian crossing which is where the hazard is likely to lie … so at least if you are drawn by the visual image your eye is drawn in the right direction.”
In March, Cairns Regional Council invested an estimated $30,000 toward a similar crossing, and a six-month trial at Pier Point Road in Cairns will begin later this month.
Could cause hard breaking…and a prang…!
Hit the brakes or swerve to go around them
A danger/an accident waiting to happen
Why are some councils a honeypot for idiots??
A great idea to make through traffic slow down – I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit, but Boulia is a lovely town worth visiting anyway.
I agree with Pat – as these crossings look 3D, drivers may hit the brakes hard expecting to run into what look like solid white blocks standing several centimetres above the road surface. I guess it would be just a matter of getting used to them & to answer the key question it would make no difference in visiting Boulia – if it’s on the itinerary I would go anyway.
Well done Rick you have a lovely little town
Anything to slow the morons down.