Buracracy, Stop Signs and Pysics

This has been one of those things that has been slowly building steam inside as additional obstacles are continually added to old paths and trails where they really don't make any sense.


I don't know who's trying to justify their existence in public service at the moment but it looks like the first annoyance of pre-spring has to be the newly bloomed stop signs that have popped up along one of the main travel routes I use.

Now one of them makes sense - it's a busy intersection so that one at least makes sense. The other two though make no real sense to me at all. They are both at railroad intersections (in fact is it the same line that just happens to cross two different roads). Combine that with the additional stop signs at a near by intersection you have 3 sets of signs to deal with all within easy eye sight from the one in the middle.

The main road has been a fairly busy road for some time, the other has been getting busier due to a lack of the bureaucracy to create a North/South route and people are beginning to make new routes on their own through the open prairie.

(this in not the place, but it looks a lot like this)

From what I understand these additional signs were added after some idiots got drunk and ran into a moving train (yes THEY T-BONED A TRAIN the train did NOT T-bone them). Now physics tells me this is a done deal - if you pick a fight with a muliti-ton piece of machinery, in your civilian vehicle you have no recourse other than to accept your own life long shame, the loss of property and possible life/or limb.

There are no additional barriers at either of these railroad crossings so their only liability is to enhance your stupidity and insure the railroad isn't blamed for your inability to recognize any LARGE, MULITI-TON, WHISTLE BLOWING, TRAIN that is coming down the track.


However there is a major danger created with the planting of these signs - due to how busy the roads are many will look at them as a joke, or may not notice them at all creating the major danger of one car stopping in the middle of nowhere to obey the sign only to find that they have been rear ended at high speed by someone who is trying to figure out why anyone in there right mind would be stopping in the middle of nowhere in the first place.

In the end the only possible plus is to the state if they plant a cop there to write tickets in hopes of filling a quota for those who run the stop sign for a rail road crossing that rarely has a train running on it.

Personally, I think Physics trumps Bureaucracy, and we should provide thanks, and a Darwin Award to those who aid in the longevity of the human race.

/rant