Stop Talking Start Making

This morning, I stumbled onto a prototype that literally stopped me. It was so stunningly simple, yet so effective; I wanted to share it here.

 

This stop sign is at the corner of Ramona and Homer Ave. in Palo Alto. What’s different about it is that a reflective red rectangle was attached to what is normally an invisible, drab gray pole.What I love about this approach is someone likely took an analogous invention, the bicycle reflector, and used it in a new way. It should be easy to measure whether this results in behavior change – fewer tickets, fewer collisions (car vs. car/bike/pedestrian), etc.



I don’t know who is behind this experiment – it seems to be the only one of its kind at the moment, but I applaud the ability to take an idea from the whiteboard, bring it into the world, and (hopefully) measure what happens.