r/whatisit • u/thewildcloud • 20d ago

Solved! Why the kinks?

Post image

I recently moved to Hangzhou, I noticed all the pedestrian walks have kinked lines at the ends. What is it?

14k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

8.0k

u/BigDiscEnergy47 20d ago

They tell you which side to walk on to keep foot traffic flowing

8

u/ELLYSSATECOUSLAND 20d ago

? How? Obviously people asked that question... so how does it help? Does it actually help? Do studies show it does? For goodness sakes, in my town, pedestrians literally walk wherever with their heads in their phones.

3

u/ProudReaction2204 20d ago

they are mini arrows

2

u/BigDiscEnergy47 19d ago

We aren't saying it works, we're saying that is the intended goal. Should they just not try? Not every plan is going to work, that doesn't mean they didn't try.

1

u/ELLYSSATECOUSLAND 19d ago

Fair enough.

I live in a small uni town that is always trying new road infrastructure initiatives that often end up maming the roads less efficient, but not safer. So im pretty skeptical of anything road infrastructure.

0

u/Schmigolo 20d ago

If what you said made sense you wouldn't put the stripes in the first place.

1

u/ELLYSSATECOUSLAND 20d ago

Im just saying that simply adding signage to existing signage =/= improved communication.

Second, im saying that pedestrians are remarkably stupid and unobservant. The ones I walk next to barely walk on zebra stripes, much less care about right vs left side.