Road safety remains an important issue for the French authorities who are constantly striving to reduce the number of victims on the roads. In 2023, France recorded around 3,400 deaths linked to traffic accidentsa figure down compared to previous years but which still remains quite high.
Influence behavior
One approach to reducing road deaths is to modify road markings to influence driver behavior.
Recently, Spain launched a bold experiment in Andalusia where a wide red stripe was painted in the middle of the roadway on a 4 kilometer portion of the A-355 road leading to Malaga. This bright red line replaces the traditional solid white line to signal the ban on overtaking in dangerous areas.
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The objective of this device is twofold: 1) draw motorists’ attention more to the ban on overtaking, and 2) encourage them to reduce their speed in risky areas such as bends, climbs or winding roads. The authorities hope that the color red, more visible and associated with danger in the collective unconscious, will have a stronger psychological impact on drivers than the usual white.
This initiative is part of a broader trend of experiments by the Spanish government which aims to improve road safety through visual means. We can cite for example the “dragon’s teeth”, a road marking creating an optical illusion of narrowing of the road to encourage drivers to slow down and which is also being tested in Spain. These innovations are often tested on a small scale before potentially being generalized throughout Europe – including in France.
As a reminder, in France as in Spain, non-compliance with the overtaking ban is severely punished with substantial fines and risk of suspension of driving license. Whether it’s a solid white line or this bright red stripe, the penalty will be the same.
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