I'm tired of 10 mile or more backups on freeways due to rubber-neckers.
Why we try to eliminate rubber necking opportunities by establishing a nationwide rubber-necking 20-foot-tall shade that can rolled out as far as need be from portable (fits in trunks) and extendable rods hooked to police vehicle front and/or back bumpers.
The UK is doing it. Why not the USA? This article says it onlhy takes 15 minutes to erect. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/4165790.stm
It could be called:rubbernecker guard rubbernecker screen rubbernecker shield rubbernecker shade rubbernecker wall
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I notice that the news article was from 2005. It said they were going to test it. The question is, how well did it work?
I've had a version of this on my 'list' of inventions for many years.
I would use ramset-type powder charges to shoot a replaceable 'nail' attached to the first 'stick' (made of fiberglass or similar) into the ground. From the first stick, I'll unroll up to about 25 feet of perforated plastic from an apparatus that looks like a few tape-measures stacked on each other, each about 6-inches wide and individually replacable. They all have retract-springs, too. When fully exended, the operator would fire another powder charge to shoot another 8-inch .25 dia 'nail' into the pavement to support the 'tape measure' end, with it's fiberglass stick.
I think 25 feet would be about as heavy as you could do with one and I'm, only holding it by two ends, so it will be subject to wind loads. That length will cover the most-rubber-necked part of the accident. But I'd design it so I could set a couple of them in a series if needed. Height about five-foot of screen, but installed a foot or more above the roadway will mean that it can still fit in the trunk of a Crown Victoria, the average police car.
When finished, to take it down, I'll fire another powder-charge with a special projectile that will pierce the first 'nail' to punch the head off of it flush with the road. You'll leave the first nail in the pavement and get a new-one for next time.
So yes, I think this is a good idea and I've thought about it too. I'm sure many people have.
Maybe our troopers could move a great many cardboard cutouts of cars getting a tire changed to different spots on the freeways until drivers become numb to this amazing phenomena. I'd like to think of a cure for general stupidity, especially one that does not involve violence. So far, though, I got nothing.