"Speed Trailers"
Yesterday I saw my first speed-monitoring sign in an expressway setting. Normally these signs (which prominently post the speed limit and your current speed -- presumably detected by some sort of radar -- beside it) are found on the side of secondary roads, or country roads where speed limits are in the 30s. Actually, you can find them anywhere where the municipality has the funds to erect one, and where motorists often travel above the posted speed limit. The thinking goes as follows: drivers, presumably shocked to find that they're travelling at least 10-15 miles per hour above the posted speed limit, will notice their imprudent speeding and feel compelled to slow down. Somehow this never happens to me.
That is, until I saw such a device work at expressway speeds. Remarkably, such a device was sitting in the as-yet-unopened HOV lane of the westbound LIE in the great expanse of darkness between Jericho Turnpike and Glen Cove Road. Alone in the dark, motorists zoomed past this sign (placed next to the road's left-most lane) at 72+ MPH. It was quite a stunning sight to see my fellow motorist blithely ignore the posted speed limits and continue to accelerate as they passed the sign. (In this particular work zone, the actual speed limit was 45 MPH).
Personally, this extrinsic reminder of my in flagrante delicto was enough to make me slow down momentarily. Others appraently perceived it as a challenge -- egging them on accusatory amber digits -- and kicked up as much gravel as possible in the general direction of the helpless sign.
Were there more of these signs on Long Island highways, operating at different times of day, they might have an opposite road-rage-inducing effect: reminding motorists of just how slowly they're actually moving.
That is, until I saw such a device work at expressway speeds. Remarkably, such a device was sitting in the as-yet-unopened HOV lane of the westbound LIE in the great expanse of darkness between Jericho Turnpike and Glen Cove Road. Alone in the dark, motorists zoomed past this sign (placed next to the road's left-most lane) at 72+ MPH. It was quite a stunning sight to see my fellow motorist blithely ignore the posted speed limits and continue to accelerate as they passed the sign. (In this particular work zone, the actual speed limit was 45 MPH).
Personally, this extrinsic reminder of my in flagrante delicto was enough to make me slow down momentarily. Others appraently perceived it as a challenge -- egging them on accusatory amber digits -- and kicked up as much gravel as possible in the general direction of the helpless sign.
Were there more of these signs on Long Island highways, operating at different times of day, they might have an opposite road-rage-inducing effect: reminding motorists of just how slowly they're actually moving.
posted by Matty at 3:07 PM
1 Comments:
Haha.. yea Speeding by these signs is fun. I use to work for a trailer manufacture here in Southern California. Whom of which made speed trailers, and An often issue that arose was the fact that these speedsters would turn around and see how high they can go, unknown to them that the ones produced by this manufacture had a minimum and maximum speed setting so, if its a 45 zone and people try to go about 70 it wouldnt register. Good Idea.
I to find them amuzing to watch the Sudden brake lights when the motorist notice each speed trailer.
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