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I live in the rough end of town, where we get a fair amount of joyriding and otherwise damn bad driving. In consequence, there's a fair amount of what they like to call "traffic-calming measures" hereabouts - specifically sudden sharp chicanes, and bumps in the road that are not so much ridges as whole damn plateaux.
However, Newcastle is a small city, and in most quarters the rich and the poor live pretty much cheek by jowl. A five-minute walk from my door brings me to wide and tree-lined streets where the houses cost three-quarters of a million or more.
Where, I am startled to observe, they have introduced a traffic-calming measure. Not for the residents, clearly, it must be to disencourage the yobs; but joy of joys, it's deceptive. It's a fake. It's a trompe-l'oeuil sleeping policeman...
White paint on tarmac, is all it is; but it's terribly clever, it looks exactly like a real lumpy bump in the road. As a pedestrian, I had to walk right over it to assure myself that there really wasn't any rise or fall. It's that good.
However, Newcastle is a small city, and in most quarters the rich and the poor live pretty much cheek by jowl. A five-minute walk from my door brings me to wide and tree-lined streets where the houses cost three-quarters of a million or more.
Where, I am startled to observe, they have introduced a traffic-calming measure. Not for the residents, clearly, it must be to disencourage the yobs; but joy of joys, it's deceptive. It's a fake. It's a trompe-l'oeuil sleeping policeman...
White paint on tarmac, is all it is; but it's terribly clever, it looks exactly like a real lumpy bump in the road. As a pedestrian, I had to walk right over it to assure myself that there really wasn't any rise or fall. It's that good.