Qian Suwei (

Beijing Morning Post): The public has already got used to twodimensional zebra crossings, and people feel safe when walking on standard zebra stripes. Now, they may feel uneasy with the 3D zebra crossings. They’ll see these stripes as obstacles and involuntarily raise their legs when walking on them. In these cases, instead of ensuring safety, these special stripes will slow down pedestrians and increase dangers.

Many drivers say, when encountering 3D zebra crossings, they feel there might be some obstacles on the road and thus slow down. However, others say 3D zebra crossings easily create an illusion in front of them, and their vehicle might hit other ones.

It’s said that 3D zebra crossings will help to force drivers to slow down and will thus reduce traffic accidents at crossings caused by drivers’ visual fatigue. I don’t agree with this. If drivers feel their eyes are strained, they need to have a rest. 3D stripes can only stimulate visual perception, they cannot relieve eye strain. Will 3D stripes really slow down vehicles? China’s Road Transportation Security Law explicitly states that motor vehicles should slow down when approaching zebra crossings and stop when there are pedestrians on the stripes. Thus, for drivers who lack safety awareness and despise traffic rules, even a tiger depicted on the road will not slow them down, let alone zebra stripes.