7 ms·
Humorous highway signs aim to steer drivers safely
- joezydeco 7y agoThe previous messaging was a lot more serious and somewhat morbid: https://chicago.cbslocal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/15116062/2013/01/road-deaths-sign-0107.jpg?w=640 https://chicago.cbslocal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/151160...
- nkrisc 7y agoI saw it all the time when I was commuting out to the burbs from the city on 90. Every day when I was coming home, I always got a little excited when I saw it had finally incremented! Then I would feel sad about it because of what that meant. It was strange, I had some weird desire to see the number continue to go up, apart from the clearly tragic context. In a way, quantifying it like that kind of abstracted away the human element. As the cliche goes, those who lost their lives became just another statistic. If they had put the name of the last person killed, that might have driven the point home more effectively, privacy issues aside.
- dash2 7y agoIndian signs are the classics. "go gently down my curves"... "Hurry will give you worry"... And many more here: https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content/9-funny-indian-road-signs/ https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content/9-funny-indian-road-sig...
- kranner 7y agoMissing the all-time classic "Speed Thrills But Kills".
- selimthegrim 7y agoWest Bengal is even better. One year they had "Save Drive Safe Life". The next year some one in state transport department realized the error and it was "Safe Drive Save Life"
- thaumasiotes 7y agoI've seen a sign (in the US) with three messages in eternal rotation: YOU LOSE YOU DRINK YOU DRIVE
- cgriswald 7y agoRedwood City, CA has actual, printed signs scattered around that say things like: “Traffic school is boring. Slow down.” “Speed limit 25 mph. It really won’t hurt.” “Is today the day your speed hurts a child?” “In a hurry? A speeding ticket will make you late!” “What don’t you understand about 25 mph?” and maybe a dozen more. They’re actually great indicators that the city doesn’t enforce the speed limits. Which makes the “ZERO TOLERANCE” speed sign the funniest one. Edit: The city of Hayward, CA has a pedestrian crossing sign that says something to the effect of “Heads up! Cross the street, THEN update Facebook.”
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sev0 7y agoSigns are cheaper than properly-designed roads. They're safety theatre, designed to make people feel better without actually doing anything.
- saiya-jin 7y agoah, the good old "left is right, and right is wrong" to ponder about on a 19-hour drive to Ladakh...
- jfk13 7y agoAnother of my favourites was the simple "Better Late than Never".
- kens 7y agoI saw an interesting sign in Hyderabad saying "Think! Talking on Cell Phone while driving may pave the way to hell." It had Yama, lord of death talking to a driver on the phone and welcoming him. Photo: https://photos.app.goo.gl/FrWaV356DXfjCjWj8 https://photos.app.goo.gl/FrWaV356DXfjCjWj8
- lubujackson 7y agoI really hate signs like this. I expect to be reading an important alert about an exit closure or upcoming road construction but instead end up having to parse some inane quip about buckling my seatbelt. It feels like a misuse of attention that would be better served by letting drivers keep their eyes on the road.
- avel 7y agoTend to agree. Worst one I've ever seen in a VMS is something like "Province's governor <Name> wishes you merry christmas". (Not in the US).
- ahnick 7y agoAs a counter data point, I fairly enjoy alerts like these. Whether you like them or not is quite subjective. If it was a really serious distracted driving issue, then the entire billboard industry likely wouldn't exist.
- adrianN 7y agoBillboards next to highways are illegal in many countries.
- dsfyu404ed 7y agoThat's for aesthetic reasons though.
- wtdo 7y agoMaybe. But it also seriously helps to avoid being distracted. I live in Seattle and drive to my parents house in Vegas, almost always driving I-90 -> I-82 -> I-84 -> I-15. Washington is great. Hardly any billboards. Oregon and Idaho are about the same. Driving through Utah is awful. Billboards everywhere some of them are brightly lit and flashing. I feel much more distracted by them.
- cableshaft 7y ago
- Vysero 7y agoUm, "humorous" might be a bit of a stretch.
- sigmaprimus 7y agoWith legalization in Canada there have been several "Funny" don't drive high tv adds. Strange thing is I don't every recall seeing a funny don't drive drunk commercial. I guess it's just less funny when you crash and kill someone after a few drinks.
- westmeal 7y agoWell cannabis and alcohol are two way different beasts. It is true that both reduce your reaction times, but cannabis doesn't really mess too much with your motor skills. Obviously this depends on dosage and other factors and you really shouldn't drive high or drunk but I'd rather have someone drive me somewhere high than drunk. Alcohol makes you think you're hot shit and invincible which is extremely dangerous behind the wheel.
- UncleEntity 7y agoThey have a contest on the morning radio show semi-often when some band comes to town for these messages in Phoenix--Bernie's in town later today so they would put up something like "feel the bern, use signals to turn" (though don't think they do political ones for obvious reasons).
- huebomont 7y agoLove to force distracted driving!
- standardUser 7y agoAll of these signs should just say "USE YOUR BLINKER" because most drivers in California never do.
- tejtm 7y agoIn Maine (US) last fall there was; ``` PUMPKIN SPICE DRINKERS USE YOUR BLINKERS ``` this is during the time tourists drive around looking at the fall foliage [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaf_peeping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaf_peeping
- vangelis 7y agoMODOT did it first.
- sp332 7y agoBe careful, or be roadkill! https://imgur.com/a/kBQtJVJ https://imgur.com/a/kBQtJVJ
- wolfgang42 7y agoYou can drive A mile a minute But there is no Future in it Burma-Shave
- kylek 7y agohttps://www.xkcd.com/491/ https://www.xkcd.com/491/
- wenc 7y agoI'm in Illinois and I enjoy reading humorous signs because it takes the monotony out of driving and makes me chuckle while navigating Chicago traffic and helps me tolerate grumpy Chicago suburban drivers. Road construction information etc. are still displayed so it's not either-or. Funny messages in the past on I-55 have included: * Han says Solo Down. Obey speed limits. (when Star Wars came out) * Buckling up is always a good Goooooooal! (during the World Cup - soccer) * Slowing down in Work Zones is so fetch. (when Mean Girls came out) * OMG R U Txting? I can't even. * Please stop taking pictures of this sign while driving There's a website with all the current messages [1]. [1] https://www.travelmidwest.com/lmiga/dms.jsp?location=GATEWAY.IL https://www.travelmidwest.com/lmiga/dms.jsp?location=GATEWAY...
- danesparza 7y agoOK. These are much better than the passive aggressive ones around ATL that I've seen.
- calabin 7y agoAlso in IL, my favorite one thus far has been during the holiday season, "Cousin Eddie Says Twitter's Full: Put The Phone Down."
- mickdeek86 7y agoPosted at my dad's cemetery, facing a busy road in suburban River Grove IL: "Drive carefully, we can wait" https://s3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/fjAXrFcLzRE8UN4TYTGCYQ/o.jpg https://s3-media0.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/fjAXrFcLzRE8UN4TYTGC...
- sev0 7y agoIt's safety theatre. Signs don't work, properly-designed roads work. But signs are cheaper and make it possible to continue to live a sprawling life in suburbia, so.
- rconti 7y agoThese make me so happy. It feels like the kind of humorous approach to life I've seen in other countries, but too often the US errs too much on the side of being cautious, of being conservative about messaging. It just makes me warm and fuzzy inside when someone can actually use humor in a very public way, and there isn't some stern boss telling them to stick with the script because it's 'safer'.
- njharman 7y ago> sacrifices the company’s well-known identity Challenge author to find any person who is unable to correctly attribute new logo to BMW but can do so with the old logo.
- a_t48 7y agoWrong topic :)
- nineumbrellas 7y agoIn the Boston area, these signs typically have some variation of "USE YAH BLINKAH"