Are Traffic Lights More Effective When They Have Faces?
Would a traffic light be more effective if it was a glowing-eyed face looking like it’s hollering, “Stooooppp!”?
Who knows, but that’s what Brazilians got recently thanks to an artist giving stop signals clownish makeovers. Narcélio Grud stitched masks with recycled cloth and found trash, then under the cover of darkness installed them with a Skyjack on the traffic lights of Fortaleza. In the morning, motorists were confronted with anthropomorphic signals blinking and mouthing at them, some with familiar countenances like Batman, David Bowie, and Bart Simpson.
The intervention got some giggles from drivers, but it wasn’t just about laughs for Grud. His goal was to “draw more attention to traffic signs” in the state of Ceará, where more than 2,600 people died in road accidents last year, reports Mistura Urbana. We’re still waiting on a transportation study proving these faces stop crashes, but they’re certainly something to look at: