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Awesome Birdhouse Tricks Drivers Into Slowing Down

Posted August 23, 2011 7:21 AM

From TreeHugger:

If building a house for local birds is awesome, and getting motorists to drive safer is awesome, too, then retiree Ian Magee may have single-handedly invented one of the awesomest things ever. Faced with a steady stream of drivers failing to respect the speed-limit in front of his Somerset, UK home, Magee devised a way to get them to slow down, while at the same time providing shelter to avian wildlife -- by building a birdhouse that looks exactly like a law enforcement traffic camera and installing it in his front yard.

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#1

Re: Awesome Birdhouse Tricks Drivers Into Slowing Down

08/23/2011 7:37 AM

Why not make the enclosure for law enforcement traffic cameras look like a birdhouse?

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#2
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Re: Awesome Birdhouse Tricks Drivers Into Slowing Down

08/23/2011 7:49 AM

Because it might confuse the birds. D'oh!

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#3
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Re: Awesome Birdhouse Tricks Drivers Into Slowing Down

08/24/2011 8:22 PM

I can tell you are not in England. Hiding a speed camera would be considered unnacceptably sneaky. Speed cameras have to be in the open and fluorescent yellow!

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#4
In reply to #3

Re: Awesome Birdhouse Tricks Drivers Into Slowing Down

08/25/2011 4:27 AM

They are fitted in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (in no particular order) as well.

They do catch criminal motorists.

They don't catch speeding birds.

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#5
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Re: Awesome Birdhouse Tricks Drivers Into Slowing Down

08/25/2011 5:55 PM

Here in the US, we actually have BIG SIGNS at the intersection, notifying people that red light cameras are in use. And they still catch people. And people still scream that it's NOT FAIR.

*sigh*

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#6
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Re: Awesome Birdhouse Tricks Drivers Into Slowing Down

08/26/2011 11:44 AM

Why is hiding an enforcement camera "unnacceptably sneaky."? Would not a birdhouse sitting atop a traffic light be a hint?

In USA, a patrol officer will hide behind some bushes, waiting for somebody to make an illegal turn, run the light, speeding... whatever it is he sees that he can ticket you for.

Is this ambush tactic "unnacceptably sneaky."?

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#7
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Re: Awesome Birdhouse Tricks Drivers Into Slowing Down

08/26/2011 11:48 AM

just to "enforce"what you said.

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Re: Awesome Birdhouse Tricks Drivers Into Slowing Down

08/26/2011 11:53 AM

Funny stuff!

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