My friend and I were passing through Sterling when we saw the road jaws in the street. Zig-zagged lanes for a brief stretch in the road, before everything went back to normal. Naturally, this elicited a WTF reaction from me.
Was this the result of a drunk lane striper? Was it trying to scare drivers for some reason? All I knew is that it felt like the lanes were trying to eat us, and that we needed to get the fuck out of those lanes as soon as humanly possible.
Clearly, this provoked enough curiosity to where I put forth the effort to look it up. Zig-zagged lanes apparently originated in Great Britain as a manner of visually attempting to snap commuters out of their daze of monotony and boredom of driving, to alert them that a crosswalk is approaching, and to be mindful of people crossing the road. A safety measure, so to speak.
And since so many Americans who are UK-aboos who think if it’s British, it’s Better, for whatever reason, this methodology was incorporated into this stretch of road in of all places, Sterling. And frankly, I can’t say it’s the least bit effective. It got my attention sure, but like I said, it felt like road jaws was trying to eat our car, and instead of slowing down approaching the crosswalk, I’d have felt more compelled to speed up in order to get out of road jaws’ teeth. I’m pretty sure more people would be distracted at following the zigs and the zags in the lines than the human beings they’re running over.
Of course, it might actually work had Sterling Boulevard actually put up any sort of sign or notification to reinforce the idea that a crosswalk is coming. I know the vast majority of people are stupid and/or do not read English, but believe it or not, people do look at signs. There’s a Pavlov analogy in this scenario, but only because it’s incorrect; road jaws are clearly the bell used to accompany the presentation of the food (caution signs) which caused the dog to drool, but in the case of Sterling, no food was ever presented, and now the dogs are wondering why the fuck people are ringing bells in the first place.
What ever happened to rumble strips? They still use those in Georgia. At least when I see rumble strips, I’m more apt to either brake to minimize the impact, or at least take my foot off the gas; both reactions aptly fitting the description of provoking deceleration, instead of acceleration. Road jaws just make me want to speed up so I don’t feel like the asphalt is going to eat me and the last thing on my mind is that a crosswalk is approaching.
