Road crossings are the sort of vital things you don’t spend too much time thinking about. That’s why it’s really sweet that every now and then, a council or a city or somewhere in the world will turn one rainbow-coloured in order to show LGBT people a bit of solidarity.
However, plans to incorporate one into a road in Totnes, Devon – which is known for its liberal tendencies – have hit a bump in the road (sorry) because apparently, according to no known science in the world, the colours can cause hallucinations…
Carol Wellwood said in a report in the Daily Mail (of course!): ‘Somebody who works with the elderly is concerned that people with Alzheimer’s mght find a rainbow crossing troubling. The claim is that it would cause them to have hallucinations.’
Right. Mat Price, from Proud2Be, the LGBT support group pushing for the crossing (because, well, why on earth not?): ‘I don’t understand why it is any different from putting a rainbow-coloured display in a shop window or lights at Christmas. We already trialled it [for Gay Pride Week] and no one got killed.’
On top of that, the crossing would be paid for by sponsorship rather than taxpayers’ money. So the council’s now looking to experts to find out if this crossing can really upset people – beyond the homophobes who’re all, ‘We’re OK with it but just don’t rub it in our face’.
One such expert, George McNamara, from the Alzheimer’s Society said: ‘Traditional black and white striped crossings can cause just as much confusion as rainbow colours because the black could be perceived as a hole in the ground.’
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.