Mother-daughter team's solution to safer driving in India

A mother and daughter have teamed up to make crosswalks in India safer for pedestrians using optical illusions.

Saumya Pandya Thakkar and her mother Shakuntala Pandya have re-designed the classic white-stripped crosswalk so that it appears like roadblocks rising from the road, Wired reports.

The 3D ‘zebra’ crossing aims to “increase the attention of drivers” and has already been applied near “accident prone zones” at Ahmedabad Meshana Highway in India, according to Thakkar’s Facebook page.

[Saumya Pandya Thakkar, left, and Shakuntala Pandya, right, are behind the 3D ‘zebra’ crosswalk designs.]

“An authority in Ahmedabad approached us to find ways to reduce accident rates,” Pandya explains to NDTV. “We decided to create something that would grab the attention of drivers and pedestrians at the accident-prone spots.”

Their crosswalk designs work in a way that can be effectively seen from a safe distance by a driver. In fact, it doesn’t create an extremely strong illusion so it shouldn’t lead to drivers suddenly slamming on their breaks, according to Thakkar’s Facebook page..

The duo has taken inspiration from other countries like China, where the technique has already been successfully used, according to The Architect’s Newspaper.

All images via Saumya Pandya Thakkar’s Facebook