When you walk or drive in the UK, you’re being nudged by dozens of hidden messages embedded in the roads and pavements.
Holmes is a regional campaigns officer in London for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). He suffers from a rare inherited condition that leaves him only able to make out vague colour contrasts around him. Yet he is able to safely pick his way through the hectic city streets, thanks to dozens of hidden messages embedded in our roads and pavements that few of us even notice are there. (Some were highlighted in this recent video by comedian Tom Scott, which was filmed with the RNIB). Holmes has been pushing city planners to build more of these aids for the partially sighted into the streets.
But many of these textured pavements are also passing messages to sighted people as well – without them necessarily realising it. This subtle form of communication is not just confined to the pavement, either: increasingly, motorists and cyclists are also unknowingly being told what to do.