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Editors beware, Kerning Error Ahead!
MAD Outtake: Road Signs We’d Like to See
– Posted on April 14, 2017
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Curbside Classics Archives
Image: MAD Magazine click image for full size to read the small print
Editors beware, Kerning Error Ahead!
The “Chaos Ahead, Traffic Cop on Duty” isn’t that funny. A decade or two ago, on a stretch of I-75 as it entered the Cincinnati city limits from the south, a cop decided to hang out in the median in a specific area during morning rush hour. As one might imagine, as work traffic approached at a normal rate of speed, drivers panicked when they saw the cop, slammed on their brakes, and an elderly couple lost control of their car, rolled into the median, and both were killed.
Even by cop standards, waiting along an interstate during urban rush hour traffic has to be one of the stupidest things to do, ever.
Back in the late 90’s (maybe into early 00’s), it was typical for cops running radar on I270 in MD to step into the hammer lane and wave you over. I was amazed that I never heard of a fatality stemming from this.
Actually, there was a fatality a few years back when a cop stepped into the hammer lane on MD-32 eastbound just east of I-95 in Howard County, and the practice of doing that was promptly halted. I still think the police in some jurisdictions do that on some of the slower surface streets in Maryland, but that very sad accident ended the practice on expressways here in Maryland at least.
A traffic enforcement officer stepped into the slow lane in front of me in Massachusetts to pull over someone in the fast lane just last week – it was a terrifying experience made worse by the vehicle I was driving (an activity bus with eleven students and another school staffer on board). And I wasn’t the vehicle being stopped!
I had borrowed my moms car a couple of years after getting my license 20 plus years ago. It was an auto Subaru with a turbo and at the time I had an old vw van. I had it up to 70 km/hr in a 50 zone in short order was fiddling with the radio and looked up to see a city traffic cop in my lane telling me to stop. Thank goodness it had 4 wheel disk brakes, I stopped about a foot away from his shins. I think he might have had to wipe after that. I got a nasty ticket and have since kept to a 9.9 km/hr max over the limit which so far has served me well.
Thanks for the info. I always wondered why/when they stopped.
That one at the upper left corner needs to be posted on Interstate 90’s infamous “Dead Man’s Curve” in Cleveland!
Second. Several others apply there, as well…I seem to recall some kind of talk years ago during the Calamity Jane mayoralty about taking I 90 WB down 490 or moving the whole highway to Chester Avenue corridor…
Wow ~ when was this Mad magazine printed ? .
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I remember it .
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-Nate
1969-1971 or so. It’s packed away in my attic somewhere.
Yep. All of these are appropriate for roads in the Charleston South Carolina area
I haven`t bought or read Mad in years. I wonder what today`s road signs would be like in a newer Mad feature.. And, I`m sure they can do one or two excellent ones about the dangers of cellphone use and texting while driving that even complete idiots could understand.
I have that very magazine. Was 12 or 13 when I bought it with mowing money. MAD was the highlight of my week. I also have the one with “The Lighter Side of…Driving.” I love the one with the woman and her contacts.