Hard to believe but a massive 42 foot piece of material stuck to the pavement, almost goes unnoticed, until you're about to drive right over it.

Pavement Patty is a large 3D optical illusion of a child running across the street to chase a ball outside of a Rutland Elementary School.

She will only be in town for a few days and her trip to Kelowna is aimed at getting people talking about safer driving in school zones.

“As a driver approaches the illusion she comes to life, she stands up and you can see her. What it does is creates an experience and safe environment if something ran out in front of you,” says BCAA’s director of community engagement Shawn Pettipas.

A recent British Columbia wide survey conducted last week for BCAA by Insights West tested school principals, teachers and parents about driving behaviours in school zones.

It found poor driving behaviours were still occurring with 80 per cent witnessing speeding, 73 per cent witnessing people not stopping for crosswalks and a staggering 56 per cent witnessed at least one near miss of a child almost being hit by a car.

That is why Pavement Patty was brought back out, she made her first debut in 2010.

“Things aren’t getting any better in school zones and there is a lot of dangerous behaviour going on,” said Pettipas.

A bus driver who happened to be driving over Pavement Patty on Thursday morning said it definitely worked for him.

“When I drove up on it you could see it right away, it’s like it stood up right in front of me. It made me slow down right away,” said Joe Frank.

Pettipas said so far they are seeing drivers slowing down where Pavement Patty is installed and they are getting good feedback.

“Sometimes when you are rushing to drop your kids off or pick them up you may not be making the best decision so we are urging everyone not to rush in school zones,” said Pettipas.

Pavement Patty will stick around until September 25 and is currently installed in just Kelowna and Burnaby.

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