小小创意让开车更安全

When conventional road signs have no effect, designers are turning to increasingly clever ways to subconsciously make drivers slow down or pay attention.
当常规道路标志不起效果的时候，设计师正转向一个更聪明的方式去让司机下意识减速或引起他们的注意。

Lights which last 25 years are cutting Jersey's street lighting bill in half and may improve road safety.
持续了25年的路灯在新泽西的街道照明预算中削减到一半，且可以改善道路的安全。

A spooky, black human silhouette suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the roadside of a picturesque country road in southern France. It was the size of an adult, but it had no face; instead, a lightning bolt seemed to split its head in two.
一个怪异的人形黑影突然出现在法国南部的一个风景如画的乡村公路上。这是一个成年人的体形，但是没有脸；一道闪电似乎把它的头劈成了两半。

Speeding down this road with no traffic, no lampposts and no speed traps – just ancient plane trees towering on both sides – I dismissed the figure as a weird prank. But then there was another. And then two more, an adult and what looked like a child. Then it dawned on me. The cut-outs represented people who died on this road in car accidents. The message came across: I slowed down.
沿着这条没有交通拥挤，没有路灯，没有限速，只是两边种满树木的道路上加速，我把这个景象当作一个奇怪的恶作剧。但是之后又出现了另一个，然后又出现两个，一个成年人和一个看起来像孩子一样的人。然后我恍然大悟。这个景象代表了在这条路上出车祸去世的人们。我领会到了它要传达的信息：我车速慢了下来。

It’s a not-too-subtle example of a strategy known as behavioural science or nudging – techniques that make people act or respond in a certain manner. Some nudging tactics are straightforward or obvious. Signs displaying speed, speed limits or reminding drivers to take regular breaks try to capture the driver’s attention directly. Others are more subtle; like the “average speed” cameras. While normal speed traps try to catch speeding drivers at one single spot, average speed cameras punish drivers who cover the distance between point A and B too fast. The nudging works: when in 2005 average speed cameras were installed on a 32-mile stretch of the A77 motorway near Glasgow in Scotland, the amount of road casualties fell 37%.
这一不太微妙的策略被称为行为科学——这个技术，使人以某种方式行动或是做出回应。一些“督促”策略是直白或是明显的。标识牌显示速度、速度限制或是通过一些有规律的变化来直接引起司机的注意。其他的更加微妙，像“平均速度”相机。当规定一个正常速度来捕捉超速驾驶者在某一点的速度时，平均速度相机就会捕捉下来，惩罚从A到B点距离超速的司机。这些相机被用在：2005年时的平均速度的相机被安装在苏格兰的格拉斯哥附近的一个32英里的A77高速公路上，道路伤亡数量下降了37%。

Then there are measures that tap more into the subconscious. Some road construction sites use smiley signs to influence driver behaviour: At the start of the road works the smiley is sad – but it gets progressively happier as you’re nearing the end of the construction zone. The goal is to keep drivers alert and decrease their frustration while they have to keep to a lower speed limit. In a similar vein speed boards in the UK have had a smiley added underneath. They smile at cars under the speed limit, and frown at those that go above it.
还有更多利用潜意识的措施。一些道路建筑工地用笑脸符号影响司机的驾驶行为：在刚进入道路施工区时那个笑脸是悲伤的——但是当你靠近施工区的尽头时它会逐渐快乐起来。它的目标是保持司机警惕，当他们不得不保持一个较低的速度限制时，降低他们的失落心情。本着同样的目的，在英国速度主板下面会添加一个笑脸。它们对低于限速行驶的汽车微笑，对超过限速的汽车皱眉。