By Brian Lee
Has anyone else noticed a local trend of posting unauthorized road signs?
A few months ago, a yellow, oversized diamond shape appeared in my neighbourhood warning drivers about walkers with canes and dogs. And then it reminds people that the speed limit is 30 km/h. Except it isn’t — it’s 50 km/h.
A letter in this issue (p. 15) points the spotlight at another sign and associated issues over in Garden Bay. Supportive humour is added by a snapshot of a sign that proclaims Claydon Lane as “Private.” It might as well have warned, “No Lookie-Loos.”
I remember someone in high school etched out some words and added some new ones to a sign tacked on the exterior wall of the building to make it read:
NO PARKING
Mavin
Ernie ONLY.
Those may not be the right names, I can’t recall, but I think even the school authorities appreciated the humour because it stayed up for a long time.
But some of these signs aren’t intended to entertain — they’re intended to mislead and, to be clear, it’s not a family propping up a silhouette of children with a “Please slow down” sign in their front yard or even the “Expect longboarders on our roads.” They’re lies, maybe white, that masquerade as officialdom.
It’s not unlike landowners who usurp adjoining undeveloped road right-of-way and actively encourage the belief that it is their property. But there’s a part of me that applauds the protectionist spirit that doesn’t ask permission from the authorities to preserve their neighbourhood as they see fit. It seems like a perfectly Pender solution to local irritations and they could be on to something.
Personally, I’m tired of finding dog crap on my lawn so expect soon to see a sign that cleverly mimics MoH yellow prohibiting dog walking along Francis Peninsula Road.
Someone else might install a sign near Garden Bay Lake forbidding peeing.
Maybe you’re tired of the noise from your street’s token family?
Easy, a prominent “No kids allowed” edict should restore peace.
But why stop at the roads? A float, anchor and a paint brush is all you need to rid the Harbour of jet skis or seals.
But practical benefits aside, fibber signs count on your ignorance to work and nobody likes getting taken for a sucker. I know more than a few hooligans who will go out of their way to do exactly that which an unagreeable sign asks them not to. Some of my less civil acquaintances might even hack a donut at the end of the road and then knock over the sign on the way out.
That too is a long-favoured Pender Harbour method of sending a sign.
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