Slow Down — Those Lines On The Road Are Longer Than You Think
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Take a guess — how long are the dashed lines that are painted down the middle of a road?
If you’re like most people, you answered, “Two feet.” The real answer is 10 feet. That’s the federal guideline for every street, highway, and rural road in the United States, where dashed lines separate traffic lanes or indicate where passing is allowed. A new study has found that people grossly underestimate the length of these lines — a finding which implies that we’re all misjudging distances as we drive, and are driving too fast as a result. Dennis Shaffer, assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus, led the study, which appeared in the journal Perception & Psychophysics. Sha… Continue Reading (5 minute read)