12 ms·

Guerrilla Public Service Redux (2017)

421 points by DerWOK 6y ago

livatlantis 6y ago
Ah I'd heard about this earlier but the details are a lot of fun: "He copied the height and thickness of existing interstate shields, copied their exact typeface, and even sprayed his sign with a thin glaze of overspray of gray house paint so that it wouldn’t look too new." Of course, not everyone should be doing this, but what a brilliant story!
- lima 6y ago
  The best part is that Caltrans inspected it and left it up!
1-6 6y ago
Slipping in code without alerting anyone... Fun!
- Uhhrrr 6y ago
  And he did it while it was running in production.
  - annoyingnoob 6y ago
    https://www.oddee.com/wp-content/uploads/_media/imgs/articles2/a97287_g183_5-fix-flying.jpg https://www.oddee.com/wp-content/uploads/_media/imgs/article...
et2o 6y ago
I’m glad it worked out in this case. He seemed careful and diligent. If the wrong person did it I could see this leading to people getting hurt (falling off the catwalk) or damage to cars (improper fastening). Overall I love it though.
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago
  >If the wrong person did it I could see this leading to people getting hurt (falling off the catwalk) or damage to cars (improper fastening) I really don't like seeing this sort of whatifism whenever a story about somebody doing something that is not their day job comes up. It's amazing it's still considered safe to file your own taxes. The dude had the skills and he did the job and did it well. Hand wringing over what-ifs adds nothing to the discussion.
  - sevenf0ur 6y ago
    The risks should be discussed in order to discourage copycats. People have died from objects dropped from overpasses.
    - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
      The risks aren't significantly different than from other things people do on a regular basis. People have died from objects falling out of the back of a pickup truck. People have died from a long list of shoddy home improvement projects. People have died (and killed others) from working in an official capacity for the Department of Transportation. The answer is to do the things that you do safely, not to never do anything.
      - et2o 6y ago
        No one was suggesting that nothing should ever be done.
        AnthonyMouse 6y ago
        Someone was suggesting that we discourage people from doing something because of "risk", and that thing is not significantly more risky than other things people commonly do.
  - et2o 6y ago
    Disagree. People die from stuff like this. It’s important to be aware of risks.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Ididntdothis 6y ago
I always wonder what system the LA area is using for their signage. They seem to have a rule to mark exits as late or confusingly as possible. This leads to people suddenly swerving across all six lanes. It requires a certain skill to mark that badly....
- selectodude 6y ago
  It’s not that the signs are bad insofar as the roads are old and weren’t designed for the speeds that people are driving and the volume of traffic that they handle. Cutting over four lanes over the course of a mile when everybody is going 50 and there’s plenty of room is significantly easier than how it is now.
  - mech422 6y ago
    The original freeway system was designed for 70mph... Dunno how old these roads are though.
    - wahern 6y ago
      The U.S. Interstate system was designed for 70mph. California's freeway system is older. IIRC, California built the first "freeway" in the U.S.[1] It wasn't until I moved to California that I ever even heard the term, freeway, used regularly; elsewhere in the U.S. most people use the term, highway, as a general word for a fast artery. Some east coast locales often have their own terminology (e.g. turnpike) for the same reason California does--they were the first to build such infrastructure, and to do so long before the interstate system. FWIW, the U.S. Highway system predates the U.S. Interstate system, and is still primarily composed of a patchwork of pre-existing state roads, "freeways", etc. At the time the interstate system was created highways weren't limited access--and still aren't necessarily, though most people don't understand or obey the technical distinctions in the terminology, or what type of road they're driving on. [1] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arroyo_Seco_Parkway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arroyo_Seco_Parkway. It was designed for 45mph.
      - 6y ago
acwan93 6y ago
How it looks today: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.055603,-118.2563622,3a,75y,39.45h,97.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sB26OdicvltC4P9pyiLJnOg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@34.055603,-118.2563622,3a,75y,3... That part of the LA Freeway System has always been a mess, with the 5/10/60/101/110 all mashing together in one spot.
- jrockway 6y ago
  You can go back in time and look at the 2008 view and see the guerilla sign too. While I was looking, I noticed that there is barbed wire around the pole that supports the sign, to prevent people from climbing up. But it's only on the pole that's in the middle of the freeway, not the one that is near the side of the road. Clearly not a lot of thought was put into this sign!
  - flomo 6y ago
    If I recall the story correctly, Caltrans replaced the guerrilla sign with an official one in the same location, and returned the replica to the artist.
    - jrockway 6y ago
      Yeah, I think they mention that in the article. In 2008, you can see the original. In the most recent picture, you can see the official replacement.
      - flomo 6y ago
        I mean they replaced it back in ~2001 so 2008 was the official version. Not that it makes a real difference.
        speg 6y ago
        > More than eight years after Ankrom’s sign went up, he got call from a friend who noticed some workers taking it down.
y-c-o-m-b 6y ago
I've fantasized about doing this very thing for years! There's a location here in Oregon that fails to tell motorists of a major traffic merge coming. If you miss the merge, you exit the freeway. Granted it's not difficult to get back on, but there's no way to know this in advance. Prior to the pandemic - at minimum once a month - there would be a traffic incident here because people don't get any warning this merge is coming up so make drastic changes at the last second. Here's the location on street view. Notice there's nothing indicating a merge is coming on the far right lane: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3709178,-122.7485804,3a,75y,264.53h,84.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sF7hEjMeKbyFey8qK-gSq5g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3709178,-122.7485804,3a,75y,... Once you enter the turn to go right, still no indication of an upcoming merge: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3703302,-122.7526115,3a,75y,316.55h,83.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9VrfwE5_IfPwIRE3Mijofg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3703302,-122.7526115,3a,75y,... Here's the merge, but notice that it's not until further ahead that you're now being notified the far right lane is an exit lane: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.37444,-122.7554676,3a,75y,13.91h,65.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s91DvBwi8GWQF4vluqkXppA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.37444,-122.7554676,3a,75y,13... Result? A daily traffic nightmare and constant near-death experiences. EDIT: BTW Google Maps makes it look like you have plenty of time to move from the exit lane and back onto the free-way, but it's an illusion. People are flying at high speeds on the left and you only have several seconds to get into the correct lane. EDIT: Forgot to mention this funny part. Conversely on the other side of traffic for that same freeway (I-205), they DO make use of adequate signage. Here's one that shows a merge is coming up: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.370089,-122.749564,3a,75y,52.45h,73.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sG_81ikj7rlgw4vDllYczHw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.370089,-122.749564,3a,75y,52... About two miles down, they notify you well ahead of time that the far right lane will be an exit lane: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.373263,-122.7342592,3a,75y,82.24h,78.57t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sP5MeCDRt-MmPUMDV5-MARw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.373263,-122.7342592,3a,75y,8...
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  Do it.
- cfallin 6y ago
cxr 6y ago
Rob Cockerham's site is part of the Olde Web and is filled with things that are not-quite-similar to this, e.g. the "High-Profile Sculpture Replacement" http://cockeyed.com/pranks/mall/plazaprank.html http://cockeyed.com/pranks/mall/plazaprank.html
- mprovost 6y ago
  Thanks for that trip down memory lane! Glad to see he's still at it.
- exlurker 6y ago
  Lovely, funny story!
duxup 6y ago
Not far from me there was an indication to take an exit to get to another highway... but then no indication that you have to exit again to get to that highway. It was a sort of "go here to get there and then you're on your own" sort of sign. I thought about doing something similar, but only as an amusing thought. Fortunately they fixed the sign a few months later and gave extra indications where you needed to go.
otterley 6y ago
(2001) - (the web page is dated 2017 but adds little to the original news reports of the day, e.g., https://www.laweekly.com/guerrilla-public-service-the-man-who-would-be-caltrans/ https://www.laweekly.com/guerrilla-public-service-the-man-wh... and https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-14-le-pea14-2-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-14-le-pea14...)
- Someone1234 6y ago
  The comments date from 2015, not 2017.
jjeaff 6y ago
I love a good forgery. It's stories like this that can teach us how useless much of the things we think are "secure" are actually not. I'm always frustrated with the bogus security measure out there that do nothing to stop the criminals and just serve as a hassle to honest people. Checks are one of those. I have a micr font and a few nice check mockups in Photoshop for "verifying" checking accounts for direct deposit. I'll simply plug in the bank routing number and account number, print it out and write "void" on it. As if that is some kind of security. I also keep some blank checks in case I need to actually print a check. There is nothing special about them except for the number placement (magnetic ink hasn't been a thing for a long while, it's almost all optical now). Another is a utility bill. I've had several occasions where a utility bill with your name on it is required to verify your location and identity and I either don't yet have the utilities in my name or they are in the name of a roommate. A quick scan, clone brush, and type tool and you've got a utility bill in your name. I have never had anyone take a second glance at any of this stuff. It always works.
- asveikau 6y ago
  Something I think is lost from your comment, though: It's also stories like this that can show us that people are generally benevolent. Your reaction to this is to call this "forgery" and say the signage is not "secure". Neither of those actually occurred to me here. The only thing I see is a well-intentioned person fixing inadequate signage. It doesn't seem all that less legitimate than signage from the state. To me, a better argument for increasing "security" of the signage is that occasionally in urban areas I've seen taggers paint over highway signs. That has the potential to confuse drivers, possibly leading to accidents, and it costs the state money to re-paint. But there is no danger in a vigilante making the signage more accurate.
  - libria 6y ago
    He did it right by their standards, though. Apparently even affixed it well enough to not introduce liabilities (sign shearing off in high wind and slicing into a windshield). If you don't satisfy codes, the city will undo your work [1]. [1] https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/toronto-man-builds-park-stairs-for-550-irking-city-after-65-000-estimate-1.3510237 https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/toronto-man-builds-park-stairs...
igotajob 6y ago
Throwaway account for obvious reasons. I think I got a job offer from telling this story. I heard this Podcast a little while ago. I am a civil engineer and found it amusing. I apply for a job in transportation engineering with a big agency and go through the interview process. I passed the written exam and the second oral interview. Next interview is with heads of the organization. They are asking me good questions and I think they like me and my answers. One of them asks how I keep up with news and latest things happening in civil engineering. I mention podcasts as one of the mediums. Then to keep the conversation lively, I tell them about this story that I heard through 99% invisible. They all laughed and found it amusing. It’s a transportation engineering job talking about a sign on the highway. I know my audience. Haha. And I followed up that podcasts are a great news medium and I wouldn’t have heard this story if I wasn’t listening to them. I like to think they liked me from my qualifications but this story pushed them into picking me. I ended up declining the offer because I got a better offer somewhere else. I’m just glad to know I have a really good interview story.
- vernie 6y ago
  Only a civil engineer would create a throwaway account to share such a mild anecdote.
  - humanrebar 6y ago
    Maybe it's the main account providing the anonymity. Posting something specific enough to be identifiable with a throwaway makes sense in that case.
  - sedatk 6y ago
    Formerly civil engineer, now the president of the United States.
hinkley 6y ago
The highway construction outfit is some excellent social engineering. For some reason this reminds me of the stories after Manhattan (?) legalized bee-keeping. People started confessing that they'd had clandestine hives for years. My favorite was the guy who made a fake AC unit, installed it on the roof, and bought a stereotypical AC repairman outfit that he wore every time he went to do maintenance work.
- gibspaulding 6y ago
  Slightly different intentions, but your comment about what you can get away with while wearing a hi-vis vest reminded me of this: https://www.redbull.com/sg-en/bas-keep-walls-2017-13-01 https://www.redbull.com/sg-en/bas-keep-walls-2017-13-01 There's a longer documentary on the project somewhere that I can't seem to find right now, but in it they talk about what it took to set up the last jump (starting around 3:00). If I remember right, they actually closed down part of the road (without permission) in order to set up the ramp and make the attempt.
- derg 6y ago
  >My favorite was the guy who made a fake AC unit, installed it on the roof, and bought a stereotypical AC repairman outfit that he wore every time he went to do maintenance work. This is some 90's sitcom silliness I absolutely love it.
- jjwiseman 6y ago
  See also https://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2006/09/what_is_telstar.html https://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2006/0... "The short answer is that it's a scam for parking illegally in loading zones. The nerdy answer is that it's an ongoing experiment in corporate phenomenology, urban camouflage, and brand development."
  - michaelt 6y ago
    Did you know you can get through the security cordons at international summits by simply arriving with flags on your car and your own motorcycle outriders? https://youtu.be/TdnAaQ0n5-8?t=56 https://youtu.be/TdnAaQ0n5-8?t=56
pieterk 6y ago
How do we go about getting a bike lane across the Bay Bridge? From Market St to the new section that already has pedestrian access.
- novok 6y ago
  It's expensive, in the hundreds of millions of dollars: https://mtc.ca.gov/our-work/plans-projects/bicycle-pedestrian-planning/bay-bridge-west-span-bike-path https://mtc.ca.gov/our-work/plans-projects/bicycle-pedestria...
  - mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
    Is that expensive? Back of the envelope, 10,000 one way trips per day at $5 in avoided costs of alternate transport per trip = $18.25M per year, seems like could pay for itself well within the lifetime of the bridge?
    - novok 6y ago
      That is lost revenue for the bridge maintenance fund.
      - mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
        Well, maybe, unless providing this new alternate method of transit decreases congestion and pollution, improves mental and physical health of its citizens, and by extension their productive capacity and the amount of income or other taxes that they might pay. While it's laudable that the City considers funding sources for various projects, particularly so given its many budgetary issues, it is flawed to think that the cost benefit analysis in considering whether to invest in a given project is as simple as "will this project pay for itself directly through fees that it generates". Money is fungible and the City has the ability to issue bonds. It should consider the effects of what it invests in on the overall health of the urban system at large. We do this for things that are considered "social projects", but not for infrastructure, but this is an arbitrary distinction, and as always, it's all connected! Note: I don't intend here to argue that any of the what are called "social projects" are worth or not worth their expense , just calling attention to what I see as an odd disconnect in how we determine what is worth funding. ...as a sidenote, your point also only holds if all of these trips are replacing previously vehicular traffic going over the bridge. Also note that you could have alternatively chosen to focus on the decrease in wear and tear on the bridge!
triyambakam 6y ago
These are the best kind of hacks. And it makes me think about the high barriers that end up around fixing things like this. If he had tried to make an appeal to get it fixed through official channels, how long would it have taken? Would it have been fixed?
GaryNumanVevo 6y ago
With the decline in street traffic and large increase in pedestrian traffic around my neighborhood, I'm thinking about buying a couple of street barricades and putting up "local traffic only - pedestrian right of way" signs.
barnabask 6y ago
This is like the real-world version of applying a userContent.css file to patch a UX flaw in a web application, except in this case he patched a UX flaw in the freeway. As users of web applications and freeways, I think we tend to overestimate our expertise in designing solutions to the things that annoy us. This story had a happy outcome because the expert user was careful and competent. Thankfully the barrier to entry for submitting patches is relatively high.
- lonelappde 6y ago
  He hacked the server, not the client.
codazoda 6y ago
I dunno if this story is authentic... In high school, a teacher told me about an artist who was applying for a job. The application required three pieces of art. The artist included two pieces of art and a note explaining that the third piece was the postage stamp drawn on the front.
hammock 6y ago
In my experience the transportation authorities care deeply about proper signage, and may have been happy to put up a new sign had he asked (did he?). It's not hard to print one in the machine shop, and definitely would have been less work than what this guy did.
Animats 6y ago
The Charging Bull bronze is a piece of guerilla art. NYC towed it away after the artist put it near the New York Stock Exchange. Its current location isn't the original one. It was a promotion for the artist, who wanted to sell four more of them.
mrfusion 6y ago
It would be so cool if this turned into a movement. Kind of like open source public works.
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  I’m not sure we really want people trying this on their own initiative. This was a very good quality implementation, but most attempts at this would’ve consisted of a piece of cardboard and some spray paint.
zackmorris 6y ago
I grew up during the Earth First! movement which started in the late 1970s on the coattails of various other forms of environmental civil disobedience and tree hugging. I think what's changed today is that due to the national debt etc, most of us know that things are going wrong but we're so disenfranchised/disempowered that we feel helpless to do anything about it, even if we wanted to or knew we wanted to. It's not just that we haven't had a raise in 20-40 years, but that our bosses haven't had one, and neither have their bosses. We've reached chronic, systemic ineffectualism. It changes things when we go from a "how do we stop those guys" perspective to a "how do we start helping society fix things" perspective.
lonelappde 6y ago
Related: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_urbanism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_urbanism There's also a guerilla group that fills potholes in Seattle.
becausecombi 6y ago
Kind of reminds me of the character of Archibald "Harry" Tuttle from the movie Brazil.

421 points by DerWOK 6y ago

Ah I'd heard about this earlier but the details are a lot of fun: "He copied the height and thickness of existing interstate shields, copied their exact typeface, and even sprayed his sign with a thin glaze of overspray of gray house paint so that it wouldn’t look too new." Of course, not everyone should be doing this, but what a brilliant story!

lima 6y ago
The best part is that Caltrans inspected it and left it up!

1-6 6y ago

Slipping in code without alerting anyone... Fun!

Uhhrrr 6y ago
And he did it while it was running in production.
- annoyingnoob 6y ago
  https://www.oddee.com/wp-content/uploads/_media/imgs/articles2/a97287_g183_5-fix-flying.jpg https://www.oddee.com/wp-content/uploads/_media/imgs/article...

et2o 6y ago

I’m glad it worked out in this case. He seemed careful and diligent. If the wrong person did it I could see this leading to people getting hurt (falling off the catwalk) or damage to cars (improper fastening). Overall I love it though.

throwaway0a5e 6y ago
>If the wrong person did it I could see this leading to people getting hurt (falling off the catwalk) or damage to cars (improper fastening) I really don't like seeing this sort of whatifism whenever a story about somebody doing something that is not their day job comes up. It's amazing it's still considered safe to file your own taxes. The dude had the skills and he did the job and did it well. Hand wringing over what-ifs adds nothing to the discussion.
- sevenf0ur 6y ago
  The risks should be discussed in order to discourage copycats. People have died from objects dropped from overpasses.
  - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
    The risks aren't significantly different than from other things people do on a regular basis. People have died from objects falling out of the back of a pickup truck. People have died from a long list of shoddy home improvement projects. People have died (and killed others) from working in an official capacity for the Department of Transportation. The answer is to do the things that you do safely, not to never do anything.
    - et2o 6y ago
      No one was suggesting that nothing should ever be done.
      - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
        Someone was suggesting that we discourage people from doing something because of "risk", and that thing is not significantly more risky than other things people commonly do.
- et2o 6y ago
  Disagree. People die from stuff like this. It’s important to be aware of risks.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Ididntdothis 6y ago

I always wonder what system the LA area is using for their signage. They seem to have a rule to mark exits as late or confusingly as possible. This leads to people suddenly swerving across all six lanes. It requires a certain skill to mark that badly....

selectodude 6y ago
It’s not that the signs are bad insofar as the roads are old and weren’t designed for the speeds that people are driving and the volume of traffic that they handle. Cutting over four lanes over the course of a mile when everybody is going 50 and there’s plenty of room is significantly easier than how it is now.
- mech422 6y ago
  The original freeway system was designed for 70mph... Dunno how old these roads are though.
  - wahern 6y ago
    The U.S. Interstate system was designed for 70mph. California's freeway system is older. IIRC, California built the first "freeway" in the U.S.[1] It wasn't until I moved to California that I ever even heard the term, freeway, used regularly; elsewhere in the U.S. most people use the term, highway, as a general word for a fast artery. Some east coast locales often have their own terminology (e.g. turnpike) for the same reason California does--they were the first to build such infrastructure, and to do so long before the interstate system. FWIW, the U.S. Highway system predates the U.S. Interstate system, and is still primarily composed of a patchwork of pre-existing state roads, "freeways", etc. At the time the interstate system was created highways weren't limited access--and still aren't necessarily, though most people don't understand or obey the technical distinctions in the terminology, or what type of road they're driving on. [1] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arroyo_Seco_Parkway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arroyo_Seco_Parkway. It was designed for 45mph.
    - 6y ago

acwan93 6y ago

How it looks today: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.055603,-118.2563622,3a,75y,39.45h,97.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sB26OdicvltC4P9pyiLJnOg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@34.055603,-118.2563622,3a,75y,3... That part of the LA Freeway System has always been a mess, with the 5/10/60/101/110 all mashing together in one spot.

jrockway 6y ago
You can go back in time and look at the 2008 view and see the guerilla sign too. While I was looking, I noticed that there is barbed wire around the pole that supports the sign, to prevent people from climbing up. But it's only on the pole that's in the middle of the freeway, not the one that is near the side of the road. Clearly not a lot of thought was put into this sign!
- flomo 6y ago
  If I recall the story correctly, Caltrans replaced the guerrilla sign with an official one in the same location, and returned the replica to the artist.
  - jrockway 6y ago
    Yeah, I think they mention that in the article. In 2008, you can see the original. In the most recent picture, you can see the official replacement.
    - flomo 6y ago
      I mean they replaced it back in ~2001 so 2008 was the official version. Not that it makes a real difference.
      - speg 6y ago
        > More than eight years after Ankrom’s sign went up, he got call from a friend who noticed some workers taking it down.

y-c-o-m-b 6y ago

I've fantasized about doing this very thing for years! There's a location here in Oregon that fails to tell motorists of a major traffic merge coming. If you miss the merge, you exit the freeway. Granted it's not difficult to get back on, but there's no way to know this in advance. Prior to the pandemic - at minimum once a month - there would be a traffic incident here because people don't get any warning this merge is coming up so make drastic changes at the last second. Here's the location on street view. Notice there's nothing indicating a merge is coming on the far right lane: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3709178,-122.7485804,3a,75y,264.53h,84.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sF7hEjMeKbyFey8qK-gSq5g!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3709178,-122.7485804,3a,75y,... Once you enter the turn to go right, still no indication of an upcoming merge: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3703302,-122.7526115,3a,75y,316.55h,83.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9VrfwE5_IfPwIRE3Mijofg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.3703302,-122.7526115,3a,75y,... Here's the merge, but notice that it's not until further ahead that you're now being notified the far right lane is an exit lane: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.37444,-122.7554676,3a,75y,13.91h,65.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s91DvBwi8GWQF4vluqkXppA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.37444,-122.7554676,3a,75y,13... Result? A daily traffic nightmare and constant near-death experiences. EDIT: BTW Google Maps makes it look like you have plenty of time to move from the exit lane and back onto the free-way, but it's an illusion. People are flying at high speeds on the left and you only have several seconds to get into the correct lane. EDIT: Forgot to mention this funny part. Conversely on the other side of traffic for that same freeway (I-205), they DO make use of adequate signage. Here's one that shows a merge is coming up: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.370089,-122.749564,3a,75y,52.45h,73.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sG_81ikj7rlgw4vDllYczHw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.370089,-122.749564,3a,75y,52... About two miles down, they notify you well ahead of time that the far right lane will be an exit lane: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.373263,-122.7342592,3a,75y,82.24h,78.57t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sP5MeCDRt-MmPUMDV5-MARw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@45.373263,-122.7342592,3a,75y,8...

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
Do it.
cfallin 6y ago

cxr 6y ago

Rob Cockerham's site is part of the Olde Web and is filled with things that are not-quite-similar to this, e.g. the "High-Profile Sculpture Replacement" http://cockeyed.com/pranks/mall/plazaprank.html http://cockeyed.com/pranks/mall/plazaprank.html

mprovost 6y ago
Thanks for that trip down memory lane! Glad to see he's still at it.
exlurker 6y ago
Lovely, funny story!

duxup 6y ago

Not far from me there was an indication to take an exit to get to another highway... but then no indication that you have to exit again to get to that highway. It was a sort of "go here to get there and then you're on your own" sort of sign. I thought about doing something similar, but only as an amusing thought. Fortunately they fixed the sign a few months later and gave extra indications where you needed to go.

otterley 6y ago

(2001) - (the web page is dated 2017 but adds little to the original news reports of the day, e.g., https://www.laweekly.com/guerrilla-public-service-the-man-who-would-be-caltrans/ https://www.laweekly.com/guerrilla-public-service-the-man-wh... and https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-14-le-pea14-2-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-14-le-pea14...)

Someone1234 6y ago
The comments date from 2015, not 2017.

jjeaff 6y ago

I love a good forgery. It's stories like this that can teach us how useless much of the things we think are "secure" are actually not. I'm always frustrated with the bogus security measure out there that do nothing to stop the criminals and just serve as a hassle to honest people. Checks are one of those. I have a micr font and a few nice check mockups in Photoshop for "verifying" checking accounts for direct deposit. I'll simply plug in the bank routing number and account number, print it out and write "void" on it. As if that is some kind of security. I also keep some blank checks in case I need to actually print a check. There is nothing special about them except for the number placement (magnetic ink hasn't been a thing for a long while, it's almost all optical now). Another is a utility bill. I've had several occasions where a utility bill with your name on it is required to verify your location and identity and I either don't yet have the utilities in my name or they are in the name of a roommate. A quick scan, clone brush, and type tool and you've got a utility bill in your name. I have never had anyone take a second glance at any of this stuff. It always works.

asveikau 6y ago
Something I think is lost from your comment, though: It's also stories like this that can show us that people are generally benevolent. Your reaction to this is to call this "forgery" and say the signage is not "secure". Neither of those actually occurred to me here. The only thing I see is a well-intentioned person fixing inadequate signage. It doesn't seem all that less legitimate than signage from the state. To me, a better argument for increasing "security" of the signage is that occasionally in urban areas I've seen taggers paint over highway signs. That has the potential to confuse drivers, possibly leading to accidents, and it costs the state money to re-paint. But there is no danger in a vigilante making the signage more accurate.
- libria 6y ago
  He did it right by their standards, though. Apparently even affixed it well enough to not introduce liabilities (sign shearing off in high wind and slicing into a windshield). If you don't satisfy codes, the city will undo your work [1]. [1] https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/toronto-man-builds-park-stairs-for-550-irking-city-after-65-000-estimate-1.3510237 https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/toronto-man-builds-park-stairs...

igotajob 6y ago

Throwaway account for obvious reasons. I think I got a job offer from telling this story. I heard this Podcast a little while ago. I am a civil engineer and found it amusing. I apply for a job in transportation engineering with a big agency and go through the interview process. I passed the written exam and the second oral interview. Next interview is with heads of the organization. They are asking me good questions and I think they like me and my answers. One of them asks how I keep up with news and latest things happening in civil engineering. I mention podcasts as one of the mediums. Then to keep the conversation lively, I tell them about this story that I heard through 99% invisible. They all laughed and found it amusing. It’s a transportation engineering job talking about a sign on the highway. I know my audience. Haha. And I followed up that podcasts are a great news medium and I wouldn’t have heard this story if I wasn’t listening to them. I like to think they liked me from my qualifications but this story pushed them into picking me. I ended up declining the offer because I got a better offer somewhere else. I’m just glad to know I have a really good interview story.

vernie 6y ago
Only a civil engineer would create a throwaway account to share such a mild anecdote.
- humanrebar 6y ago
  Maybe it's the main account providing the anonymity. Posting something specific enough to be identifiable with a throwaway makes sense in that case.
- sedatk 6y ago
  Formerly civil engineer, now the president of the United States.

hinkley 6y ago

The highway construction outfit is some excellent social engineering. For some reason this reminds me of the stories after Manhattan (?) legalized bee-keeping. People started confessing that they'd had clandestine hives for years. My favorite was the guy who made a fake AC unit, installed it on the roof, and bought a stereotypical AC repairman outfit that he wore every time he went to do maintenance work.

gibspaulding 6y ago
Slightly different intentions, but your comment about what you can get away with while wearing a hi-vis vest reminded me of this: https://www.redbull.com/sg-en/bas-keep-walls-2017-13-01 https://www.redbull.com/sg-en/bas-keep-walls-2017-13-01 There's a longer documentary on the project somewhere that I can't seem to find right now, but in it they talk about what it took to set up the last jump (starting around 3:00). If I remember right, they actually closed down part of the road (without permission) in order to set up the ramp and make the attempt.
derg 6y ago
>My favorite was the guy who made a fake AC unit, installed it on the roof, and bought a stereotypical AC repairman outfit that he wore every time he went to do maintenance work. This is some 90's sitcom silliness I absolutely love it.
jjwiseman 6y ago
See also https://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2006/09/what_is_telstar.html https://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2006/0... "The short answer is that it's a scam for parking illegally in loading zones. The nerdy answer is that it's an ongoing experiment in corporate phenomenology, urban camouflage, and brand development."
- michaelt 6y ago
  Did you know you can get through the security cordons at international summits by simply arriving with flags on your car and your own motorcycle outriders? https://youtu.be/TdnAaQ0n5-8?t=56 https://youtu.be/TdnAaQ0n5-8?t=56

pieterk 6y ago

How do we go about getting a bike lane across the Bay Bridge? From Market St to the new section that already has pedestrian access.

novok 6y ago
It's expensive, in the hundreds of millions of dollars: https://mtc.ca.gov/our-work/plans-projects/bicycle-pedestrian-planning/bay-bridge-west-span-bike-path https://mtc.ca.gov/our-work/plans-projects/bicycle-pedestria...
- mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
  Is that expensive? Back of the envelope, 10,000 one way trips per day at $5 in avoided costs of alternate transport per trip = $18.25M per year, seems like could pay for itself well within the lifetime of the bridge?
  - novok 6y ago
    That is lost revenue for the bridge maintenance fund.
    - mandelbrotwurst 6y ago
      Well, maybe, unless providing this new alternate method of transit decreases congestion and pollution, improves mental and physical health of its citizens, and by extension their productive capacity and the amount of income or other taxes that they might pay. While it's laudable that the City considers funding sources for various projects, particularly so given its many budgetary issues, it is flawed to think that the cost benefit analysis in considering whether to invest in a given project is as simple as "will this project pay for itself directly through fees that it generates". Money is fungible and the City has the ability to issue bonds. It should consider the effects of what it invests in on the overall health of the urban system at large. We do this for things that are considered "social projects", but not for infrastructure, but this is an arbitrary distinction, and as always, it's all connected! Note: I don't intend here to argue that any of the what are called "social projects" are worth or not worth their expense , just calling attention to what I see as an odd disconnect in how we determine what is worth funding. ...as a sidenote, your point also only holds if all of these trips are replacing previously vehicular traffic going over the bridge. Also note that you could have alternatively chosen to focus on the decrease in wear and tear on the bridge!

triyambakam 6y ago

These are the best kind of hacks. And it makes me think about the high barriers that end up around fixing things like this. If he had tried to make an appeal to get it fixed through official channels, how long would it have taken? Would it have been fixed?

GaryNumanVevo 6y ago

With the decline in street traffic and large increase in pedestrian traffic around my neighborhood, I'm thinking about buying a couple of street barricades and putting up "local traffic only - pedestrian right of way" signs.

barnabask 6y ago

This is like the real-world version of applying a userContent.css file to patch a UX flaw in a web application, except in this case he patched a UX flaw in the freeway. As users of web applications and freeways, I think we tend to overestimate our expertise in designing solutions to the things that annoy us. This story had a happy outcome because the expert user was careful and competent. Thankfully the barrier to entry for submitting patches is relatively high.

lonelappde 6y ago
He hacked the server, not the client.

codazoda 6y ago

I dunno if this story is authentic... In high school, a teacher told me about an artist who was applying for a job. The application required three pieces of art. The artist included two pieces of art and a note explaining that the third piece was the postage stamp drawn on the front.

hammock 6y ago

In my experience the transportation authorities care deeply about proper signage, and may have been happy to put up a new sign had he asked (did he?). It's not hard to print one in the machine shop, and definitely would have been less work than what this guy did.

Animats 6y ago

The Charging Bull bronze is a piece of guerilla art. NYC towed it away after the artist put it near the New York Stock Exchange. Its current location isn't the original one. It was a promotion for the artist, who wanted to sell four more of them.

mrfusion 6y ago

It would be so cool if this turned into a movement. Kind of like open source public works.

MattGaiser 6y ago
I’m not sure we really want people trying this on their own initiative. This was a very good quality implementation, but most attempts at this would’ve consisted of a piece of cardboard and some spray paint.

zackmorris 6y ago

I grew up during the Earth First! movement which started in the late 1970s on the coattails of various other forms of environmental civil disobedience and tree hugging. I think what's changed today is that due to the national debt etc, most of us know that things are going wrong but we're so disenfranchised/disempowered that we feel helpless to do anything about it, even if we wanted to or knew we wanted to. It's not just that we haven't had a raise in 20-40 years, but that our bosses haven't had one, and neither have their bosses. We've reached chronic, systemic ineffectualism. It changes things when we go from a "how do we stop those guys" perspective to a "how do we start helping society fix things" perspective.

lonelappde 6y ago

Related: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_urbanism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_urbanism There's also a guerilla group that fills potholes in Seattle.

becausecombi 6y ago

Kind of reminds me of the character of Archibald "Harry" Tuttle from the movie Brazil.