The Rural Highway Department is undertaking serious testing of three-dimensional pedestrian crossings after the concept was tried in other parts of the country.
The department is testing the new look of zebra crossing on a road in four universities for four months to find out whether it could make roads safer for pedestrians.
The crossings have been painted at Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Burapha and Prince of Songkhla universities.
Department director-general Pisak Jitwiriyawasin said the agency is working with researchers of the four institutes to study the results before deciding whether it will be painted on public roads.
In theory, the three-dimensional crossing gives drivers an illusion that there is a blockade ahead of them so they will slow down.
It is not an entirely new concept for Thailand. Crossings have been painted on a road in front of schools in Phitsanulok, Uttaradit, Chai Nat and Yala to alert motorists as they are approaching a school.
The origins of the idea are unclear. Some roads in Taizhou, a city in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, and Changsha city in Hunan province, used the design eight years ago. Yet the world seemed to know it in March this year when two Indian artists painted it on a road in Ahmedabad.