Stimulus

I recently drove to Georgia after having spent too long before going back there to visit with loved ones.  The minute I crossed the border between SC and GA on the interstate, I noticed something odd: the road markers.  They had multiplied and seemed to be on steroids.

As long as I can remember, after coming to this country and noticing them, road markers have been small inconspicuous signs on the side of the road marking each mile of interstate and state roads from one boarder to another, be it state to state or county to county.  In the past, they were helpful to drivers who wanted to gauge where they were in relation to their destination. And now, they’re still helpful to people like me who have not yet been convinced that they need to be tied to a “smart” phone or a GPS system that can track me on a computer/satellite network at all times, and in turn allow me to know where I am physically at all times. I don't mind being a little lost...

These new markers on Interstate 85 are skinnier and placed lower than speed limit signs, but are as tall, or maybe taller.  They are big, and to my eye, cluttered green signs.  Unlike mile markers of old which straightforwardly tell you the mile you are on, these have the Interstate symbol with interstate number printed on them under the word “Highway” or maybe “South”, I don’t remember and can't make out on my crappy pictures (scroll to end); I just know that the “coat of arms” symbol makes them look very official.  Below the official looking interstate symbol, these signs then have the word “mile”, with the mile number printed under that.  Also, most surprising of all, they don’t just mark miles, they also mark half miles in this new, big, and conspicuous way.  

Disturbingly, to those of us interested in good design and annoyed by bad design, the “.5” on the half mile markers does not fit on the same line with the main mile number, and is placed underneath it in a bigger font.  Something like this:

Truthfully, I found these new signs horribly distracting as they zipped by on an average of every 28 seconds or faster depending on what speed I was driving.  I also wondered why the state had spent so much money on these things, about 400 new signs since there is about 200 miles of interstate 85 in the state of Georgia, in an age when most people do have GPS and “smart” phones that tell them exactly where they are.  Those of us who are still electronically somewhat untethered were doing just fine with the old small inconspicuous signs once every mile and paper maps.

It seems as if that quick and dirty, first and maybe only, spate of Obama stimulus money went to Georgia to be spent on new interstate signs for an old interstate in serious need of real infrastructure repair.  Contemporary politics moves too quickly to allow for slow and thoughtful disbursement of funds on big long-term projects with real effects.  These days, everything is window dressing.  I wonder what Obama got in exchange for his stimulating of Georgia signs since the place still voted for Newt Gingrich in the primaries and probably would elect him president if “it” could.  Let's remember that Newt was promising to build a colony on the moon; a very loooonnng-teeeerm project indeed.

Here are some crappy phone pictures, obviously not taken with an Iphone, of our tax dollars at work:

mile 163

28 seconds later

mile 163.5