Blogathon 09/17: Not working. Not being smart

These days everyone in the UK (and wider afield) has access to smart technology.

I was out with a friend for dinner, a few weeks ago when, during a lull in the conversation, he pulled out his mobile phone and switched the radio on in his kitchen at home.

For a joke.

I’m sure his wife was very amused.

But that’s not the point.

I can remotely access a huge range of technology, and I’m sure you can too.

Switch things off, switch things on, move (data/application) things around.

It’s not rocket surgery.

On the way to/from work, a significant stretch of the dual-carriageway A-road is having the central barrier renewed.

I don’t know when the workmen are onsite doing stuff, because when I come through in the mornings, they haven’t started yet.

And when I go back through in the evenings, they’ve finished, packed up, and gone.

Not a trace of life, at either end of the day.

And yet the speed limit for the whole stretch of dual-carriageway has been reduced from 70mph to 40mph.

The signs are far from automatic, they are those standard, unchanging, stand by the roadside things.

A bit like this:

So let’s assume that the workers are actually onsite doing their job from 08.30 to 16.30.

That’s 8 hours

And 8 hours times 5 days (because they don’t work weekends at any time) = 40 hours.

There are 168 hours in the week.

This means that an unnecessary speed limit is in force for 128 hours a week.

Or the equivalent of almost 5-1/2 days.

Almost 5-1/2 days of needless speed restrictions on a busy stretch of dual carriageway.

This isn’t unusual.

Why are road contractors so lazy about investing in smart speed limit signs?

Are they afraid of the technology?

Or are they afraid their staff are too stupid to operate them?

And how is this over-imposed speed limit acceptable?

Answers, please, on a comment below.