Those yellow bars do save lives
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THE YELLOW bars painted across roads at the approach to hazards — usually roundabouts — to encourage drivers to slow down after long periods of sustained fast cruising, are not a gimmick for thermoplastic manufacturers that some cynics suggest. A large-scale experiment by the Transport and Road Research Laboratory has shown that they are not only splendid value for money: they also save a great deal of human suffering.
Records kept at 100 sites — 50 with bars and 50 "controls" without — indicated reductions of 74 per cent in fatal and serious—injury accidents and 52 per cent in slight-injury accidents where the roads were "barred." Crashes related to speed fell by 66 per cent in daylight but by only 21 per cent after dark.
Yellow bars appeared to be more effective when roads were wet than when they were dry, the respective reductions in accidents being 68 per cent and 45 per cent. Optical illusion is not just entertainment: it saves lives.