Velocity limits are put in place to keep the public safe. They’re often thoughtfully calculated primarily based on the highway’s circumstances, and usually seem in multiples of 5. Nevertheless, one zoo has a weird velocity restrict of 9.5 miles per hour, and the reasoning behind it’s truly fairly intelligent.

The zoo in query is the Cape Might County Zoo in Cape Might, New Jersey, and a video of a lady questioning its odd alternative as she drives by was uploaded on YouTube. A transportation engineer got here throughout it and defined why a speed restrict like that doubtless exists.

See Additionally: Top Speed Limiters Are Coming, But What About Acceleration Limits?

TikTok consumer Mr. Barricade, whose actual title is Vignesh Swaminathan, is a transportation engineer within the California Bay Space. In his addition to the unique TikTok video, he explains that the highway the signal is positioned on is probably going a low-volume highway with out centerlines, which tends to make folks subconsciously velocity extra because of a larger perceived width.

@mrbarricade##stitch with @gilbertandsullivan 🚸we do a variety of ##trafficengineering tips to subconsciously make customers ##drive safer ##civileng ##urbandesign ##speedin♬ original sound – Mr Barricade

Nevertheless, by inserting an indication with such an uncommon velocity restrict, it catches drivers’ consideration and makes them extra conscious of their velocity, due to this fact making them much less more likely to break the speed limit. So whereas that quantity might have simply as simply been 10 mph, whoever designed the highway knew it wouldn’t seize your consideration in addition to 9.5 mph.

So, if you happen to ever come throughout a highway with an uncommon velocity restrict sooner or later, you’ll now know that it’s doubtless designed extra to make you take note of your velocity quite than be an arbitrary quantity for the sake of it.