The village of Bauné, in western France, has resorted to extreme measures to force drivers to respect speed limits. Usually the solution is speed bumps, but not this time!
Implemented two weeks ago, the village drew a series of continuous lines on the road, in an attempt to force drivers to slow down in a zone that has a speed limit of 20 km/h, but in which drivers often exceed 50 km/h.
“It is a city of 1700 inhabitants that is crossed by three main municipal roads. People drive fast and it's difficult to get people to slow down and have road signs that work," said Jean-Charles Prono, mayor of Loire-Authion which is made up of a group of seven villages including Bauné and where the problemstic intersection is located.
The purpose of the lines is "to make it difficult to read the landscape, that is, to create events that call the driver's attention to say what is happening", explained the mayor, also saying that they could have added speed bumps, but that these could be noisy in a village.
Road users and the internet in general did not react well to this measure. The road raises several legal issues can even be dangerous as it confuses drivers rather than slowing them down.
The mayor says that the configuration is not “definitive”, but that the objective was to do something quickly that could work to slow down drivers.
“At the moment it is working. I am aware that it can be disorienting and that care needs to be taken, especially with older people,” he said.
