On topic: Guerrilla Gardeners

We are all familiar with turning a corner and noticing a roadside
object at exactly the place you will run off if you have any problem
cornering.

I have read a paper (http://www.rsconference.com/pdf/RS050016.pdf?
check=1, linked in a previous post) about the problem of run-off-road
crashes.

Generally (in the suburbs of Melbourne), if a highway maintenance man
is going to stick a bollard, post or pole in the nature strip where
there is a bend in the road in order to catch a car, he sticks it
*exactly* where a motorcycle would go.

A wooden post, or a metal pole that would bend a bumper, break the
radiator and buckle the bonnet of a car is effectively a solid,
immovable object to a person that is bodily thrown in to it. Of all
the motorcycling deaths in Victoria, single vehicle crashes account
for about 40% of them.

In the paper, on page 6, they talk about 'Crash Barrier Post
Protectors' - similar to the padding around football posts but a bit
thicker. It will take your strategically positioned post and cut the
impact and deceleration forces in half and, in tests, can cut
fatalities by 25%. It either hasn't occurred to your local highway
department to jacket the post, or they are saving money; they might
jacket the post if it did occur to them and they had the money.

Now for the 'Guerrilla Gardeners' bit... I don't advocate committing
an offence.

What would happen if you were to adopt your favourite post (you know,
the one you keep on looking at) and jacket it properly with expanded
polystyrene (better put some reflective tape on it) held in place with
tie-wraps.

Your direct action would then be directly influencing YOUR chance of
being killed - not that I think you'd need to defend yourself for your
actions. Legally (I am not qualified to give legal advice) I would
expect this to be about as bad as 'bill sticking', although well
intentioned. It would have to be done anonymously, due to the
likelihood of someone hitting it and getting hurt.

I wonder whether a man from your local highway department would come
around and cut it off. What if they cut it off and THEN someone hit
it? Would they cut it off if they knew why it was there? Probably no-
one cares about that pole except you anyway.

Just an idea.

 

Agree totally with your comments about the jacketing of the posts
but about the roadworkers taking them off
wish the roadworkers would start taking down all the crosses which adorn the
trees and fence posts on nearly every road in Australia, with the sun faded
plastic flowers and scrap pieces orf paper having been there for a long
time.

Not that there is anything wrong with memorials, there are places for that,
they are called cemeteries.

Most of these roadside memorials are forgotten after a few months, or until
someone connected to the unfortunate person who died there, is driving past
and says, "Oh, that's where Joe died" and that is that till next time.

 

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.

 

I wonder if they're grieving or in part trying to stop it happening to
someone else. I often think 'better learn from some else's mistake'
when I see them.

Better jacket the pole now than have someone nail a wreath up for you
in the future, eh?

 

but your funereal was so nice

mh

 

[Applause]

 

No wreaths for youse then!

 

No wreaths for youse then!

 

Sorry for that Joe, you have your own cross to bear

 

Doesn't worry me at all, I won't be here to see whether there are wreaths or
not

 

I remember a few years ago, where the road authorities would paint something
on the road, a skull and crossbones or something like that
There used to be one at a railway crossing anear Taylors Lakes
Don't know if it is still there or whether they continued the painting or
not.
That is more likely to be a deterrant than white crosses all along the road

 

I think South Australia has a similar system.

 

I'm a bit confused - wont the dozens of little wooed crosses simply
snap as I slide over then to the deadly post? Shurley it would be more
productive to tie-wrap a li-lo to the post with 'RIP Joe' written on
it.

--
wouldn't it be freaky if someone had a tag that looked like a cross
and did them all along the highway? SA Roads would have to do
something about that tagger!

This is a bit like a cross: http://streetarse.co.nz/wp-content/gallery/auckland/Enforce 1 cross st .jpg

 

In WA in the late 90s they were considering removing/banning all home
made roadside markers because they reckoned drivers were being
distracted by them and this was causing accidents.

Nev..
'07 XB12X
'08 DL1000K8

 

I'm not dead, and I want my ninepence back.

 

Jeeze they've got it in for you Joe!

 

Same thing was mentioned in Victoria, but those little, or sometimes big ,
crosses still pop up like mushrooms

 

SA has large steel posts, black for dead, red for not quite dead. They
leave them up for 8 or 9 years I think. They are a substantial post
and the red ones would do you more damage than the original injured
person. Can't make the same comment about the black ones.

Theo

 

More damage than a Stobie pole? I don't think that's possible.

 

I had to look up Stobie pole. No, that would be unlikely. The roadside
markers in SA appear to be just one side of a Stobie pole. but will
certainly hurt you more than a wooden cross.

Theo