Sign of the Times

I was driving home yesterday and I came across a sign that struck me as a little funny. It said, "Autistic Child in Area". I truly believe we are already over-signed. Just think of your street right now. Besides the "STOP" sign that is obviously required from time to time, what else do you have? You've probably got several "No Parkings" on your block. Perhaps a "P" with a line through it is a few feet from the intersection. Then we have the "School Zone" signs around the neighborhood. We have a few "Children at Play" around as well. My biggest pet peeve are the HUNDREDS of "Bike Route" signs in our area. We already paint the white line a few meters aways from the curb. I don't get it. What would happen if a cyclist started down a block and saw the first sign a few houses down, but then nothing? Would they go knocking on doors and ask if they could ride on? Would they stop, pick up their Schwinn and walk the rest of the way?? And it's ridiculous to put these reminders throughout a large suburban community. If you think about it; Every freekin street could be a "Bike Path"! Ugh!

Back to the sign in question. I'm not a completely uncaring sort. I believe there should be cautionary advisories in areas where there are schools... or penitentiaries, but I'm not big on reminders that there are deaf, blind, or autistic children where I'm driving. It's kind of insulting. Am I going to drive any more cautious? Probably not. I guess if I see a child going back and forth across the street for no apparent reason, I will snap my fingers and say, "Aha, there's the autistic kid!" I'm already aware, as a logical person, that if I see a child or any bipedal individual in the middle of the road (a squirrel eating a nut also comes to mind), I'm going to slow down and hopefully have a chance to come to a full stop before any chance of injury. I'm not going to be saying to myself, "Thank goodness for that sign or I would have struck this person!" Bottom line - If you're a good driver, you don't need these silly reminders.

A better way of handling bad drivers is to test them more often. We get our licences after passing a test for the first time and then that's it. "Good luck Mr. New Driver. See you in 50 years or so." It boggles the mind that we are just thrust out into the driving world without any follow-up. I would love to see signs that say, "Caution - Watch Where You're Going, Moron!" or "Slow Down or YOU Will be Killed!" Actually, I saw this sign on the internet. It would deter people with brains from driving down your street... 'cause everybody knows zombies eat brains.

So please don't think I'm making light of those less fortunate. I just don't think we need more sign pollution. In fact, I just did a quick count of all of the signs in a 10 block radius of my house. Do you know how many there were? "Course, four hundred and fifty-two, yeah, 452. And I'm an excellent driver so I don't need any more signs... Yeah, excellent driver..."