It’s really quite ingenious. 63-year-old Ian Magee of Williton, Somerset, created a simple bird box with the same size, shape and bright yellow colour as a British traffic camera. He hoped it would stop drivers from breaking the 50km/h speed limit outside his home.
And it worked. Even ambulances slowed down. Meanwhile, the birds and bats in the neighbourhood have really taken to it. Win for nature and society,
Except authorities are divided on whether or not Magee should take the thing down. Which is silly. Magee’s cleverness has probably saved both money and lives. He’s doing the community a service. Wouldn’t it be wise to just leave well enough alone? [Daily Mail
Puddiepants
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 9:10 AMIt’s like seeing those roadwork ahead signs and the reduced speed limit signs for roadworks when nothing is happening, after a while people learn to ignore them and then there is no safety benefit where it may actually be needed
EckyThump
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 9:39 AMYeah, plus I’m pretty sure it would be illegal, certainly would be here! #]
Phil
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 11:01 AMEverything is illegal here!! Haven’t you heard? We live in the nanny state.
EckyThump
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 12:27 PM:(
wooktree
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 2:59 PMIt’s like those speed limit signs on every road.. Soon people just don’t give a crap and speed because they’re jerks :)
Viddy
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 11:39 AMIt’ll only be a matter of time before it gets a car tyre put over it and set alight…
…then the birds & bats arene’t going to like that much!
Simon
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 4:12 PMI always think of this question: Which is safer, driving a little slower with your eyes constantly staring at your speedo, or driving a little faster based on the conditions and keeping you’re eyes on the road?
I’m not saying go 80km/h everywhere, but when the conditions are good speeding a little isn’t as bad as a distracted driver.
wooktree
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 4:35 PMYou’re meant to glance at your speedo, not stare at it.
Sam
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 5:34 PMPresumably he’s staring at it because he’s making sure to go EXACTLY THE SPEED LIMIT AND NOT ONE TENTH OF A KM LESS. Which granted is still a better attitude than the jerks who just speed everywhere, but kind of misses the point of speed limits like so many.
Will
Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 2:42 AMMore like he doesn’t want to GO ONE TENTH OF A KM MORE, because he’ll be fined for it.
Andrew
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 6:58 PMI agree that having to regularly check your speedo is a distraction. It’s necessary especially if you live in a hilly area, you just can’t get past the fact that we will regularly slip over the limit and not through lack of trying. It is a problem.
Being a tech site and all, I propose using technology to solve the problem. In a world of connected devices, soon enough every car will always know what speed zone we’re in. A simple beep at a slow rate when we go over the limit could easily solve the problem. Beep gets faster as you go further over the limit. Eyes never leave the road, the world becomes a safer place, the powers that be go somewhere else to do their revenue raising.
If it turns out that road safety sees a drastic improvment, then maybe speed limits can be raised. Making excuses to speed now is not appropriate tho.
wooktree
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 2:03 AMunfortunately you’d have people simply ripping out that beeping mechanism or creating a switch for it so they can turn it off. Not like they’re gonna have their car checked by police to see if a beep actually occurs or not. It might stop the honest “I didn’t mean to” people from speeding accidentally but seriously, how many of those are there? You gotta wonder when you’re flying past every other driver on the road, “am I speeding”?
Ash
Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 10:17 AMGood thing to have except for Ambulances when there is a real life threatening emergency. The last thing they need to worry about is speed cameras as every second counts when trying to save a life.
ryan
Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 2:39 AMHow can people just not FEEL what speed they are going, surely after driving enough you just get a sense of the speeds, i find that if i dont check the speedo in a while if the speed limit is an odd speed like 70 i drift back to 60 where as if its a common speed such as 50 60 or 80 i can follow it effortlessly.