Do You Know What "Dragon's Teeth" Are? A Traffic Sign That Can Confuse Drivers
Take a look at how "dragon's teeth" look on the road.
Traffic experts and authorities in many countries around the world have been trying for decades to reduce the number of traffic accidents. In addition to classic methods such as road cameras, police patrols, and fines, sometimes they also play on human psychology.
Optical illusions in traffic exist in some locations (just think of 3D pedestrian crossings), but the Spanish decided to go a step further and use the method of so-called “dragon’s teeth” to make drivers slow down.
These are white triangles painted on the inside edges of the white lines that mark the lane on the road. Because of their appearance, they got the name – dragon’s teeth.
HAK Revija writes that they can be seen in Burgos, but also in Madrid, where the triangles are alternately painted in yellow and white.
The idea of dragon’s teeth is to create the impression for drivers that the road is narrowing and that they should drive more carefully, that is, more slowly. Before a pedestrian crossing, longitudinal zigzag lines can also be seen, warning drivers to slow down.
In the place where the new horizontal signalization—or rather, illusion—was introduced, there have been no traffic accidents so far, while previously there were, even with fatalities. Maybe this trick really works. If so, we hope it will be applied in other countries as well.
