I thought the same thing and most certainly slow way the heck down while trying to figure out what the heck I just saw. I'd probably presume it was some sort of programmable temporary signage on the fritz and treat it like a traffic light with the lights out.
Rapidly flashing lights! At night! That is without a doubt the singularly most obnoxious signage I've ever seen. I hope the city is successful in getting it removed.
I'm having a hard time looking at that box on the corner of a reasonably busy intersection, ostensibly there as some kind of early warning device, and that sign that says "Do not unplug"...and thinking "so all I have to do to defeat this is...unplug it?"
The sign makes a lot more sense when you view it this way, even the message is clearer: It's not just warning that you could generally lose control of your car but specifically that you could drive off the road because of that.
But yeah, the design makes this very hard to recognise and suggests more the "two crossed tire lines" interpretation which gives this a cartoonish, tongue-in-cheek vibe, which is completely unfitting.
I had one of these on my commute in Atlanta for a while. (Left turn) It was impossible to read the sign unless you came to a stop, at which point a cacophony of honking emerged from behind, whether it was the right time or not.
At some point they added a little yellow light to indicate it was legal to turn. I was a little awestruck.
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.
This one gives a better idea of why this might have happened, in the direction of travel, the white back of the sign is easy to miss with a white-sided box truck behind it:
The pole at the end of the divider with the sign facing away, stretched-arrow street paint left-turn symbol, and the enormous expanse of intersection pavement are all a little disorienting.
Yes, of course, but I think we have to acknowledge that it's a very uncommon sign in the UK, and the fact that you almost never come across it in your day to day driving might make you numb to it - and in like the car in the video, just blow right past it. Maybe someone who interacts with Stop signs every day and has to obey them on a regular basis wouldn't have done that.
I am colorblind. A rely on consistency a lot when I am out and about. This sort of thing feels really deceptive. Aren't there other signs, signals or actual three-dimensional tools that can be used to slow traffic (speed bumps) that are not deceptive?
The reflex of treating this intervention as some kind of security threat is embarrassing. I read an article at the time musing that the white flags meant something about surrender. Like a child in a cave scaring himself by whispering "boo".
The installation, by the way, reminded me of Richard Ankrom's guerrilla modification of a well-known freeway sign near downtown LA (http://www.ankrom.org/freeway_signs.html).
The artist had a sign fabricated to Caltrans specs, got a haircut and a hard hat, and did the install in broad daylight (on a weekend). It was up for over 8 years -- Caltrans noticed it after a couple of months.
Eventually it was replaced by a similar design by actual Caltrans workers.
straight road, no reason to go suddenly slower, the sign is completely irrelevant. drivers are not robots, if they get a good reason to slow down, they will. (eg. Waze telling them a speedtrap or patrol car is there ... or some actual traffic reason.)
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