In Artist's Freeway Prank, Form Followed Function

Los Angeles Times ^ | 05-09-2002 | HUGO MARTÍN

[boris]

Transit: Unauthorized addition to sign went unnoticed for months. No charges planned.

The origin of the added directions on this sign escaped official notice for months.

What more could an artist want?

An unusual medium. A chance to take a jab at the establishment. An almost endless audience, speeding to see the work.

Richard Ankrom created that enviable milieu above an unlikely canvas--the Harbor Freeway in downtown Los Angeles.

[boris]

For some reason I cannot get the pics to display. Click on the link to see the "artwork".

[Orual]

This is the video. Wish we could hire him to do something about the signs on the Long Island Expressway. What a terrific idea he had.

[Leisler]

Maybe we could raise taxes some more and have highly paid professionals and government engineers figure...oh...ya..right. Nevermind, back to my crypto serf job.

[Alberta's Child]

With all due respect, this doesn't exactly sound like "art" to me -- the guy simply exposed the engineers at CALTRANS as dopes by doing their job better than they did.

[Wright is right!]

Took him two years of planning and execution, just to make up an I-5 sign to exact DOT/Caltrans specs? Heck, you can buy(if you know where to look) interstate highway sign BLANKS and add your own numerals and reflectors. They make 'em in all the standard sizes, one of which is the size CalTrans used on this signage.

So, this "artist" lamented that it would take TWO YEARS to get CalTrans to change the signs. How, 'zackly, is it better that HE changed the sign - and it took HIM two years?

Michael

[another cricket]

It is a nice idea but I don't know that I would call it "art."

a.cricket

[Wright is right!]

"the guy simply exposed the engineers at CALTRANS as dopes by doing their job better than they did."

But, if you'll note my post above, not necessarily FASTER than they would have.

CALTRANS, for all the slings and arrows that people occasionally throw its way, is probably the best-run of all the state highway departments - an oddity in CA state goverment. CalTrans pioneered a number of innovations, not the least of which is debunking the age-old idea that all freeway entrance and exit ramps had to be part of massive cloverleaf interchanges. Lots of freeway entrances and exits were constructed with minimum land-taking by snaking them for a block or so thru neighborhoods and alleys. Saved a LOT on land acquisition costs. They also came up with the incentive program that many states now use that gets big projects done early and under-budget. The earthquakes were the impetus on that one. Remember 1-10? The contractor ran double and triple shifts around the clock and brought the reconstruction in over 200 days EARLY and 'way under budget - and earned huge incentives.

Of course, no organization is perfect, and with all the maze-like interchanges CA has, it's no wonder that this particular one wouldn't be especially well-marked.

BUT - as you say, it ain't ART.

Michael

[no-s]

The art part is - it's performance art? Because he made it all by his lonesome? As far as it taking two years - CalTrans was never, never, never, never going to fix it.

This exposes an interesting issue - City and State traffic engineers, following rigid specifications and regulations, routinely do bonehead stuff more often than not. When called on it, they always saying they were doing the best they could do, given the situation.

Why is there always a "no u-turn" when you get to the logical place to back-track after following erroneous sign directions? Sometimes you are forced to drive several miles on main streets after a minor error (reinforced by confusing signage), or exit the city center, or drive through neighborhoods full of kids, all in order to obey the signage.

[Alberta's Child]

Thanks for the info. I'd be interested to know who the CalTrans commissioner is. New Jersey had a DOT commissioner a few years ago named Frank Wilson, and what made him unusual at the time was that he was the only state DOT commissioner in the U.S. who had a background in civil engineering. His first initiative was to implement a toll-free hotline and e-mail address where people could provide details about road signs that were misleading, confusing, etc. (this was always a problem in New Jersey because you have three levels of government -- state, county, and local -- along with various toll authorities and transit agencies, and each organization has responsibility for different road signs). The DOT then just went out and fixed the problems that generated the most complaints.

[Alberta's Child]

Why is there always a "no u-turn" when you get to the logical place to back-track after following erroneous sign directions?

In defense of the traffic engineers, this is usually a safety issue. These "No U-Turn" signs are generally placed at locations where drivers would be forced to merge onto a high-speed roadway at a point where there are no acceleration lanes. Or at locations where a driver would need to cross multiple lanes of oncoming traffic.

All it takes is one accident involving a knucklehead with a good lawyer -- without those signs in place, the first line of questioning in the civil suit would be as follows: "How could you NOT have a 'No U-Turn' sign in a location like that?"

[no-s]

These "No U-Turn" signs are generally placed at locations where drivers would be forced to merge onto a high-speed roadway at a point where there are no acceleration lanes. Or at locations where a driver would need to cross multiple lanes of oncoming traffic.

The boneheads who do make the dangerous manuevers don't even look at the signs! There are some on-ramps nearby (US 101 south of San Francisco) which can send you in the wrong direction if you take the sign literally. If you go with the flow of traffic in order to avoid a physical confrontation with another vehicle, the next offramp is set up to prevent you from reversing direction on the freeway...you have to exit right, turn left onto a side street, go three blocks and turn around in a parking lot in order to reverse course. I've seen the same thing all over the country, so I don't think it's unique to California.

A simple mistake compounded by unclear signage may send you miles in the wrong direction, unless you commit a minor infraction. Plus the local police are often aware of this and set up ambushes when they need to write more tickets...whereas if you ask them to enforce stop signs and speed limits in your neighborhood - good luck!

[Kermit]

"Caltrans officials had discussed adding more directional signs, but the agency spokeswoman said she is not sure why the department never followed through."

Ahhhh, that's the point. The guy knew the bureaucrats wouldn't do anything, so he did it himself. I've been there and missed the turn and that was a decade ago.

[Alberta's Child]

If you go with the flow of traffic in order to avoid a physical confrontation with another vehicle, the next offramp is set up to prevent you from reversing direction on the freeway . . .

Under no circumstances should you ever be reversing direction on a freeway anyway. Have enough confidence in your ability to find your way back from the next interchange. Some motor vehicle violations should prompt an immediate beating from the police or other motorists, and driving in reverse on a freeway is one of them.

[no-s]

ahem...the next offramp is set up to prevent you from reversing direction on the freeway...a poor choice of wording.

However, Since the freeway is usually a Bi-Directional Unit, my complaint is implicitly about the bias against Trans-Engineering, and all that stuff preventing us from getting to go the other way....

[no-s]

Some motor vehicle violations should prompt an immediate beating from the police or other motorists, and driving in reverse on a freeway is one of them.

Plus, it nearly kills me when I see this happen.

[Alberta's Child]

I hear ya. LOL!

[boris]

"It is a nice idea but I don't know that I would call it 'art.'"

"We know the tail must wag the dog,
As the horse is drawn by the cart.
But the devil whoops, as he whooped of old
'It's clever, but is it art?'"

--Rudyard Kipling, The Conundrum of the Workhouses