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Comment by pityJuke | Hacker News Reader

Completely unrelated to the parent topic: oh my god, they added warning signs on top of 11"8+8, and people are still messing up?

EDIT: Nope, my memory is bad, the "OVERHEIGHT MUST TURN" sign was always there.

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"OVERHEIGHT MUST TURN" is almost comical in it's dangerous ambiguity. My first parse is "if you were over height, you would have to turn", not "you, yes, you! Stop! Now!".

I'd take a bet that the person who choose that wording wanted the accidents to continue but also have plausible deniability because they did do "something".

That is exactly what it means though, they don't want everyone to stop just overheight vehicles. What do you want the sign to do? Encourage everyone to stop?

It has a sensor and only goes off for overheight vehicles. If you see it come up, you will hit the bridge if you continue straight, but it's worded too like a generic warning to all vehicles: which is the parse you have also apparently made.

Better wording would be "Overheight! Do not proceed under bridge!". If you have space: "you are overheight!" or "overheight vehicle detected!"

Add the number plate with an ANPR camera for bonus "this means you" (it also triggers a red light phase whenever it sees an over-height vehicle, so you will have time to read it). And yes, this is possible, I've seen supermarkets flash your number plate at you as you enter to warn you the parking times are being recorded.

I see what you mean, you're probably right that it would help, but honestly I just don't think the people hitting it are reading it in the first place. It doesn't light up until they're at the intersection, at which point they're either very focused on the light or the traffic, and definitely not looking way above even the yellow bar. Most people seem to be driving rentals, and in their case they're just not thinking about the size of their vehicle, and the rest have gone under a thousand bridges that look to the unfocused eye just as tall, so they're not worried about it at all. What they really need is probably just something that hangs at that height in front of it so you can hear it bang off of your car with minimal damage before you actually hit the bridge, and push the intersection further away from the bridge so there's more time to look at the signs.

They've put up extra height bars and they've added a blinking light using a sensor for warning overheight trucks (OVERHEIGHT MUST TURN) which shows to an extra long red light. I also believe they've lowered the road a little bit, but there's only so much they can do.

People still crash into it, somehow.

It's called inattentional blindness.

People not only see with their eyes, but with their mind. That's why you might see cyclists with blinking taillight, or even lights in the daytime.

Yeah. I think that sign would be more effective if both lines were swapped: "Must Turn, Overheight" rather than Overheight Must Turn". It sounds like a generic warning, I bet these truck drivers don't think it's specifically about them.

Pays to be imperative: TURN NOW. Needs more bright red blinkenlight, too.

The sign that warns driver does actually blink though, for this exact reason. I believe there's a separate electronic sign further up the road as well that flicks on when a vehicle triggers the sensor. Even without all that, an educated driver should just see the sign on the tunnel and determine their truck doesn't fit...

Funnily enough, blinking taillights are actually banned here because it's very difficult to guage distance and speed from a blinking tail light.

That's why you have a blinking taillight and a continuous light.

> I also believe they've lowered the road a little bit

I don't remember that, but I do remember that they raised the height of the railroad bridge, to the greatest degree that was possible.

That may have been it, I know they added a little bit of height at some point but I don't remember exactly how they accomplished that.

Haven’t the warning signs always been there, even when it really was 11’ 8”?

You're right, woops. Memory is a fickle mistress.

Yes the warnings have been there all along not a surprise its happening

The bridge is fucking world-famous and they still manage to mess up.

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