Apparently on date Tue, 12 Apr 2005 19:01:44 +0100, Andrew Norman
I wonder if this is stupidity in action, rather than incompetence?
A longish time ago, I was going along a 'NSL' A road near where I live and in a layby miles from anywhere were some old people mostly in picnic chairs with a large black screen thing which, as I approached, flashed amber lamps and a big face with a frown, with "30" below it in big numbers and "59" in red.
Then they all sort of gibbered and shook fists and things.
I thought maybe someone was filming an advert or whatnot, it was very surreal.
Someone else I know, spotting the same thing, did some speed trials, to see if the sign went over "99" and the like. Apparently it topped out at "99", I suppose it was designed for a 30 limit, maybe 40 at a pinch.
On digging deeper, the story seems to be that the people were old fogeys concerned at the speed of traffic on their residential street and (presumably to fob them off) the local police had loaned them a portable speed trap, set up to monitor at 30. And they'd set it up on an A road instead.
I mean, they thought... what..? What did they think they were achieving?
Would they have been happy if the police had actually sent out NIPs for 35+ in a 60 zone? Would people have paid, on receiving a NIP for, say, "Old Fogey Avenue" for doing 45 mph in what would actually have been an entirely different road with a 60 limit when you looked at the pictures?
Sheer, unmitigated stupidity all round. Next time I see them at it, I shall stop and see what they think they are doing, and possibly take a camcorder and send it in to Beadle's About or a similarly embarrbutting national TV show.
It would be fun to have an accomplice drive up the road "in camera" at 60 in a non-ABS car with prepared tyres, and when the " ! 30 ! " sign lights up, have them do a staged, lockup emergency stop to:
A) Coat the fogeys with a healthy dose of road, brake & tyre dust
B) Get out, discover what was happening, and then remonstrate, indignantly, about showing what look like emergency speed restrictions when there is no reason for them and they have no authority to do it.
C) Maybe some fogeys could be talked into starting fights committing acts like technical buttault, etc?
The more I think about this, the more opportunities I can see...
