Friday Five: “Disabled” Joggers and Olympic Lanes

This controversial signage has garnered many negative responses in the area (via Idaho Statesman).

July 27, 2012 — An electronic board on Franklin Road in Caldwell, Idaho, shows a surprising comparison in protest of President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.  It features James Holmes, the man who murdered 12 people in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, alongside a picture of President Obama, claiming that Obama’s foreign policy has killed far more people than Holmes. The signage has received generally negative responses, which claim that it is in poor taste and out of line.

At the University of California San Diego, a long-time abuser of handicapped parking permits was caught on tape. The man behind the camera was a complainant who had been reporting the falsehood of the man’s handicapped plates for four years to no avail. The video depicts a man parking his vehicle and literally running from the vehicle to the interior of a campus building. The running man in the video said that he parked there because he was running late, knowingly risking a parking ticket but betting on the lot’s lax security. The man in the vehicle is now subject to a $450 placard abuse fine by the UCSD police.

New and adorable signage has come to New York City to demarcate walkways between avenues (via Gothamist).

In New York, the area from 51^st to 57^th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues will be getting a new series of adorable signage. The buildings have cookie-cutter walkways between the two avenues for ease of pedestrian traffic, and the Department of Transportation has deemed this passageway 6 ½ Avenue. The adorable signs are expected to be popular among sign stealers, but locals are excited to be able to say they will meet someone on 53^rd and 6 ½. The avenue is currently listed on Google Maps.

With new “game lanes,” Londoners are expected to endure heavy traffic to make way for athlete and tourist travel during the Olympics (image via RoadTrafficSigns.com).

The BBC will be using digital signage to display the Olympic torch relay that marks the opening ceremonies. The BBC Big Screens will allow for live coverage of the games throughout the country, with the control center in Birmingham sending out messages to the 22 large displays in various locations along the route. When the torch relay is close to one of the screens, the audience feed will be displayed on that screen all day. Large displays along the roadside are not the only change in London that pertain to vehicle traffic. The city has also set up “game lanes” to smooth the traffic flow. Designated roads throughout the city will rarely experience red lights and traffic stops.

After failing to comply with OSHA regulations in the case of a thunderstorm, a Florida water park is incurring a government fine (via MyPoolSigns.com).

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined Adventure Island, a water park in Tampa, Florida, for failing to comply with governmentally regulated procedures for oncoming thunderstorms, resulting in the death of a lifeguard. The park incurred a $7,000 fine for the incident, which occurred in September 2011. The lifeguard was struck by lightning while standing in shallow water while evacuating people from the top of a 700-foot tall water ride. OSHA states that employees should shut down rides when lightning is reported within five miles of the water park. In Chicago, a similarly unnecessary loss of life has caused a hefty fine for the city of $3.25 million. Maya Hirsch, a 4-year-old girl, was fatally struck by a car in 2006 when crossing the street with her mother and 5-year-old brother. The intersection had no stop signs or traffic lights, despite protestations for increased signage/traffic regulation years prior to the accident. The man behind the wheel fled the scene but was eventually convicted, and died in prison in 2008 while serving an eight-year sentence for the hit-and-run.

– S. Walsh