h a l f b a k e r yWith moderate power, comes moderate responsibility.
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There is an intersection, not far from my house, that has
a
stop sign going the wrong way. it's in a T shape, and the
road that ends does not have a stop sign, while the road
it
T's onto does. Many times I've been tempted to
constructively vandalize this stop sign, and move it to the
proper
place to make the intersection safe. however, I'm
worried about the consequences and generally don't want
to bother with it.
enter the Corps of Civil Editors. these people are hired
(or
volunteer) to tour the country and find bits in various
government agencies/infrastructure that are not in
accordance with the rules, or are unsafe (by design,
rather
than lack of maintenance.) The Editors have the
expertise
to identify these mistakes, and the authority to fix them.
I'm sure they could increase the efficiency of several
government agencies/programs, and would hopefully get
around to fixing my stop sign.
BBC News: Civil Editors Needed - In Welsh
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7702913.stm
[zen_tom, May 24 2011]
Civil Editor branded as a graffiti artist
http://www.telegrap...ayward-grammar.html
[TomP, May 24 2011]
Sounds exactly like Richard Ankrom
http://www.good.is/...eal-public-service/
I drove by this sign many times in the eight years it was up. [ytk, May 24 2011]
[link]
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our local paper has a feature in which people submit things like your sign and the reporters in charge of the feature try to make some entity take responsibility and fix it. |
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[+] A little like the Imperial Chinese office of
censor. |
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Maybe it could be a program where licensed engineers would have the option of getting paid extra for identifying things like that on their days off and sending instructions to a dedicated crew, who would then do the actual fixing (and bill the contractor that screwed it up in the first place). |
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//it's in a T shape// Capitalization
//road it T's onto// Misuse of apostrophe
//however, I'm worried// Capitalization
//enter the Corps// Capitalization
//these people are// Capitalization
//unsafe (by design, rather than lack of maintenance.)//
Period should come after close parenthesis
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[+] Where do I apply for the job? |
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[ytk] I think you should become a politician and
create the job, that you might apply for it. |
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[+] There would be so many things to fix here where I live... |
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My town features two T-intersections exactly like this--one
of them is at the end of a bridge with high rails, hampering
visibility. Worse, we are in a high-tourism area, so all the
locals who normally breeze around the corner are stuck
chewing on thier steering wheels (or handlebars) while the
outtatowners sit there with thier blinker on trying to figure
out how it works. It's bad enough in a car, but they make
me _really_ nervous when I'm on my motorcycle. |
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And this is in a town that only has four major
intersections. WHY?!! |
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and half the intersections are like this? and here I
was thinking it was an isolated incident... |
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Half of the major ones, yes. There are a dozen or so little
three- and four-way stops in the residential areas, but this
is a little 700-odd population town in the mountains,
making it all the more ridiculous that half of our high-
traffic intersections are these strange one-stop right-angle
things. It has something to do with the path of the major
through-ways, but that doesn't make it any better (or
safer). |
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Our street sign is covered by leaves now that spring has
come. If they would come and clip away the clutter, I'd be
damn grateful! Bring em on...+ |
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So a few years ago my road had some workers come down and dig holes every few meters to check the gas supply pipes. Then they put everything back and left.
But there were these occasional places where that didn't quite work; a paver wasn't slotted into place correctly, there was one missing or something like that.
I walked past one every day which stuck up, a pretty significant trip hazard. After a couple of months of hoping that someone would come round, check the work and fix it, I discovered that it was possible to report this sort of issue to the council online. Very convenient.
So I reported it, thinking maybe someone would get around to it eventually. And fuck me, they'd sent someone round to fix it immediately; within the hour I had an email saying it had been 'made safe' - and it had! (I checked.) And later they did a more permanent fix and emailed me that, too. |
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Drunk on this newfound power, I started reporting other similar issues as I came across them, on the same and nearby roads. They always fixed it immediately, even if I reported it on Sunday evening! |
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I like to imagine that their service is like the Thunderbirds crossed with Ghostbusters - someone shouts "We got a call!" and hits a big red button. Various signals and alarums. People slide down greasy poles into service. The report is inspected, and a loadout is decided. A trailer is selected, configured and attached to the truck automatically, using various conveyors. Then the truck drives off on its mission, alarms blaring. |
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A year or so later, the pavement was replaced with tarmacadam for the full length of the road. I don't know if they'd noticed a sudden up-tick of reports in the area and decided this was easier, but it does seem to have precluded other issues. |
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So I guess what I'm saying is, if you notice something like that - see if you can report the issue; it might get fixed. |
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This is disturbing news, [Loris]; you might be living in The Truman Show. |
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What [pertinax] said. I've never heard of a local government actually doing helpful things, let alone doing them immediately. An alternate reality seems more likely. What color is the sun where you live? |
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Sign me up! I'm already an elite member of the international guerrilla Civil Editors Assoc., Punctuation Division, what with fixing signs surreptitiously with my (mostly) black (but also many other fine colours of) Sharpie™ and my 'whiteout™' (in several sign-matching shades). |
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Yes, I'm aware that signs are often misspelled for effect. I mainly fix misused apostrophes. Put me on speed-dial. |
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