Originally published at: Portland removes 'Merge Simpson' traffic sign | Boing Boing
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I can see why the Portland Fun Sponge Police would do this.
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Part of the ongoing escalation of the Morale Suppression initiative
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For those unfamiliar with the Portland / Simpson’s history
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D’oh!
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As a habitual pedestrian, I’m concerned about this part of the story:
The artist covered up a pedestrian crosswalk sign.
How many pedestrians must die for the sake of a pop-cultural reference?
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portland? joy crushing? portland is one of the most PRO-joy cities i know of. i mean, they did just name a Ned Flanders bridge, and all.
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The merge/marge relationship goes deeper too. In many (most?) software development teams now, Marge’s icon is a shorthand for code merge requests or statuses. So in Slack, you might say “Please [marge icon] my pull request” or place the marge icon as a reaction emoji to the request to indicated it has been merged.
As for killing joy, well, the city is liable for the street signs being visible and correct, so it’s hard to fault them for needing to legally protect themselves.
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Is it funny? I think so.
Would it have been just as funny without covering up a real traffic sign, on the other side, say? I think so.
Does covering up a real traffic sign turn this from a funny prank into something dangerous and shitty?
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Not really. Drivers are less likely to ignore the Marge sign than a pedestrian crosswalk sign here. With the Marge sign, they might slow down at least.
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Merge Simpson may be gone, but Ned Flanders Street continues to serve the residents of Multnomah County. These pop up all the time in Northeast Portland (and no I am not responsible for Montavilla’s), even all the way out in Rockwood.
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They might not realize it’s supposed to be alerting them to the presence of a crosswalk, though. If one didn’t know what was being covered up they might reasonably assume it was a “merge” sign.
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That intersection has both. There are still the big bold crosswalk lines on the ground, not shown in the pictures.
I guess I’m confused then, the description says
The artist covered up a pedestrian crosswalk sign
Which makes it sound like the sign in question was a “pedestrian crossing” sign, not a “merge ahead” sign. Obviously the crosswalk itself is still there but the original sign was presumably put there for a reason.
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Yes, just pointing out that the freeway on ramp has both a crosswalk and a merge. The Marge art covered a crosswalk sign.
My personal experience as a pedestrian in the area is that drivers pretty much ignore crosswalks unless there is a light.
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I’m very much a proponent of art in public spaces. But I draw the line at completely covering up a a traffic, pedestrian, cyclist, or other safety related sign.
I don’t care who you are, your art is not good enough to cause physical harm or death.
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As the liability police populate and fill up the bureaus of California, so goes the municipalities of Portland.
Just a reminder that there are lots of ways to do this sight gag without covering up any safety/traffic signs.
…along with other Simpsons characters…
…including this one which was also spotted in Portland.
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Do you know where in town the Portland one is?
