Decoy Autos

The evening television news reported that city police have resorted to using decoy police cars in an attempt to cut down on the number of drivers running red lights. The news reporter named most of the intersections where the cars will be located as well as several other major high traffic areas.

For some time, cameras were used to film drivers running red lights. Photos, being proof of their having done so, resulted in fines, which in turn furnished the city with hefty revenues. During the last election, the initiative to ban all traffic cameras finally won, and all the cameras have been removed. Now the police hope decoy cars will alert drivers not to speed thru intersections that 'woulda, shoulda, coulda' resulted in a traffic ticket.

Seeing a police car in the nearby vicinity of where one is driving will automatically alert one to driving hazards, and if speeding, slow down. On many occasions, I have driven miles behind a police car controlling traffic by driving the posted limit. Only when the police car veered off on an exit ramp, did any of the drivers following behind speed up from the posted limit.

In long ago days, I often drove highway 101 to and from San Francisco’s peninsula to southern California. There was a small town in the middle of a long expanse of highway that rarely had drivers stopping for gasoline, food or motel services. The highway ran along the edge of the town which posted speed limits but they were generally ignored.

One day as I drove south, I saw a 'black and white' parked at right angles to the highway so that it could be identified as a police car from some distance away. There was no question about it. A police car was waiting for a speeder. Of course I slowed down.
You can imagine my surprise to see that when I passed the 'black and white', it was only a cutout in plywood that had been painted like a police car. It was so realistic that it only became a cutout when the driver was within feet of it. It became one of my favorite things to notice as I drove thru the beautiful and changing landscape.

One of the favorite devices police use to catch and fine drivers is hiding their autos in nooks an crannies off the traditional highways and byways. The moment a driver fails to stop at a stop sign or runs a light, or when a radar gun registers speed above the allowed limit, a police siren or spotlight warns the driver to pull over to the side of the road and show his driver's license while the officer writes a ticket.

I had an experience many years ago when the above happened to me and I forgot to pay the ticket. Some weeks later I got my renewed drivers license in the mail and being in a hurry, I only glanced at it and put it in my purse. That evening I casually mentioned to visitors that the state had redesigned the new drivers license and I passed it around for them to see.

You can imagine my shock and dismay when I was told it wasn't my new license but a notice of my arrest if I didn't pay the fine!

Pierre Vivant's Traffic Light Tree
Canary Wharf London