How Are Speed Limits Enforced By Aircraft?

I'll answer the titular question last, and start off with a few different interesting road signs and road-related trivia I've run across in my time.

You Can Hack Into Road Signs

I feel obliged to say you definitely shouldn't do this, but if you were curious how to do it,

here's a link.

There are some great examples on that page but here's one representative image:

Photo Credit: Paul Anderson

A Few Random Interesting Signs

This is a sign for "Thin Ice"

Photo Credit: WordShore

Photo Credit: Tim Ellis

Photo Credit: Richard Masoner

Photo Credit: Joe Dunckley

Photo Credit Gabe Kinsman

How Often Do Speed Limit Signs Need to be Posted?

I did a little digging, and so can you, about how often speed limit signs are required to be posted. As it turns out, by federal law, signs only need to be posted at two places: entrances to the state, and at "jurisdictional boundaries to metropolitan areas." Everything else is a recommendation, including entrances to a freeway and where the speed limit changes. That struck me as interesting. These recommendations are nearly always followed, but they aren't strictly speaking, required.

In reality, every state has adopted something called the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, or MUTCD. This manual has stricter specifications about speed limit signs, along with every other sign you see on the road. The MUTCD is the main reason you can drive from Maine to California and never be confused along the way, because road signage is very standardized. To avoid going down a rabbit hole from which I'll never escape, I'm going to set down the MUTCD and move on.

I lied, one more thing:

"Speed" is defined in a few interesting ways in this manual. One of the most used is the "85th percentile," the speed under which 85% of vehicles travel. Now I'm done.

Maximum Speed Limit Limits Around the World

Here's a link to the original

Interstate Numbers Have Meaning.

If an interstate highway's number is even, it travels east / west, if it is odd, it goes north / south. Think about the highways near you, it holds true across the US.

Some highways (C-470 near where I live) travel in large loops. These are named for the direction they mostly travel

What's the Deal With Hawaii?

Hawaii has interstate highways. Interstate. What gives? It turns out the name simply means the highways receives federal funding, which is true in Hawaii. Good thing too, because the H-3 in Hawaii is not only one of the most beautiful segments of the US Interstate system, but also one of the most expensive. Feast your eyes:

Photo Credit: Marvin Chandra

The H3 on the Hawaiian island of Oahu cost about 80 million per mile to construct, with a total cost of around 1.3 billion. Here's a newspaper article on the building of the H3.

Don't Block the Box

Photo Credit: Richard Winchell

These signs can be seen in New York City and other large cities around the world. Their aim is to avoid gridlock by issuing fines to cars that block the intersection itself, of the "box"

Stolen Road Signs

Here is a short list of oft-stolen street signs around the world. See if you can detect a theme:

• Richard Bong State Recreation Area;  Brighton, Wisconsin
• Stoner Avenue; Bemidji, Minnesota
• High Street; Denver, Colorado
• Mile Marker "420;" I-25, Colorado*
• Katie's Crotch Road; Portland, Maine
• Butt Hole Road; Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, England
• Bat Cave; North Carolina
• Fucking; Austria (named for Adalpertus Fucingin)
• Shitterton; Dorset, England

Note* the "420" mile marker in Colorado is no longer stolen (though I doubt they moved the sign the required 53 feet south to compensate):

Photo Credit: Bill Keaggy

Road Crossings in the UK

Here's a random link for typeface geeks

If you've ever driven in the UK, watched the show "Sherlock," or saw a friend post a picture from the Abbey Road street crossing...

Photo Credit: Mage Who on YouTube

...you may have wondered what the deal is with those zigzag lines. It turns out they are there to signal cars not to change lanes or park near the pedestrian crossings so pedestrians can see the oncoming traffic.

Pictured above is a "zebra crossing," but not all crossings in the UK are this same type. There are also Pelican, Puffin, Toucan, and Pegasus Crossings

Zebra Crossings often come with "Belisha Beacons," (right) named for Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transportation in 1934, who put up these beacons around the UK.

In addition to familiar Zebra Crossings, the UK has Pelican (Pedestrian Light Controlled) crossings that have auditory and tactile feedback for the visually impaired, and a light to stop traffic.

A Pedestrian User-Friendly Intelligent (Puffin) crossing uses sensors to detect pedestrians and control traffic flow based off their presence.

A toucan crossing is passable by bicycles as well as pedestrians, so two can cross it. Get it? Two-can, Toucan? Great name.

Finally, a Pegasus crossing is for horses. There's no clever pun there, just that the last few types of crossings got bird names, so the horse crossing became known by the name of a flying horse, Pegasus.

How are Speed Limits Enforced By Aircraft?

Photo Credit: Paul Bevan

Finally! I always thought it would be worth the cost of the ticket to get pulled over by a fighter jet, but that's not quite how the process works.

First, there is a designated area of a known distance that a small fixed-wing aircraft will patrol. The aircraft carries a pilot and a spotter. The spotter will time cars along this distance using some specialized timing equipment, and can figure out exactly how fast a car has traveled through the area. The spotter then informs a patrol car on the ground to issue a ticket, not needing a reading from a radar gun.

The cost for operating a small aircraft hovers around $150 an hour. In order to make this program profitable, the aircraft team needs to issue several tickets in that hour. Considering that the aircraft team as well as the serving officer need to appear in court, and the aircraft team often requires overtime pay, these programs are not very profitable. Many programs are justified by looking for other crimes such as illegal plant growth (mostly pot, but occasionally an particularly endangered ficus) and illegal hunting activity.

One way to cut down on costs may be to employ ticket-issuing drones, which are coming home to roost with fewer overseas engagements.Luckily, this is still in a legal grey area, for now.

On that happy note,

Cheers, 

    - Scott Sieke

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