Culture

Photos, Video: 3D crosswalk in Ísafjörður helps slow down speeding motorists

By Staff

It's like it's floating on air The townsfolk of Ísafjörður say they have never seen anything like it. Photo/Ágúst G. Atlason

The small fishing town of Ísafjörður in the Westfjords unveiled the first ever "3D crosswalk" in Iceland. The crosswalk, which is painted to look like it is hovering over the street, is intended to slow down traffic and reduce driving speeds in the narrow residential streets of the old town of Ísafjörður.

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Gautur Ívar Halldórsson, the manager of Vegmálun GÍH, a road painting company which created the crosswalk, the local news site Vísir that the idea had originally come from New Delhi, the capital of India. The environmental commissioner of Ísafjörður, Ralf Trylla, had come across the idea while researching for novel ways to slow down traffic speed.

It only took a couple of weeks from Ralf getting the idea to all necessary permits from the Police and the Transport Authority being in place. In the meantime Gautur Ívar and Ralf practiced 3D painting.

Ralf told Vísir that in the narrow residential streets in the old village in downtown Ísafjörður a speed limit of 30 kmh (18.6 mph) is simply too high, and other ways must therefore be found to slow motorists down even further. The municipal council has not decided whether more 3D crosswalks will be added in Ísafjörður, but if the experiment proves successful more might indeed follow. According to Vísir similar crosswalks have been painted in Russia, India and China