In the UK we have a road sign which warns you you’re near a rest home or other area where you might encounter elderly or infirm pedestrians (shown here).
Old or Infirm People road sign
According to a story in the press this week (various newspapers, but full story in the Daily Mail) campaigners are demanding for it to be scrapped because it is ‘insulting to today’s fitter, healthier senior citizens’. They’re saying that it should be replaced with traffic calming measures (it often is) or a new image which is more politically correct.
Help The Aged senior policy officer Lizzy McLennan (26) says: “Very few older people are hunched over, with a walking stick.
“They are assuming everyone who is old looks like that, and they don’t.”
Erm, no Lizzy. They’re not doing that, nor have they ever done so (and at your age you probably wouldn’t know that). What they are doing is warning you that you might encounter infirm people.
Gordon Lishman (no age given), director-general of Age Concern says:
“The motivation behind these signs is positive.
“However, in practice a reduced speed limit in such areas, as implemented in school districts, would be a more welcome way to achieve this.”
Hold on, Gordon. Don’t get carried away. School districts also have a road sign irrespective of whether or not they have traffic calming measures. Haven’t you seen this one? And while we’re on the subject, do children actually look like that nowadays?
Barry Earnshaw (65), chief executive of Age Concern Lincoln says:
“I am 65, so therefore I am considered an elderly person.
“The sign doesn’t represent older people as they are today.
“There should be a generic sign that is representative of all vulnerable pedestrians, regardless of age.
“The objective is to make people slow down – there needn’t be separate signs for sifferent types of pedestrians. It is very outdated.”
Of course it is, Barry. I’m sure your ‘generic sign’ – perhaps a smiley face or something – would be really useful outside schools, stables, and hospitals and would prevent a great many injuries and deaths. But what on earth would be the point of putting up a warning sign at all if senior citizens nowadays are all fit, athletic, superheroes? It must just be my imagination that they’re building so many care homes and ‘retirement villages’ around the country.
At least some people haven’t succumbed to senility just yet. The Taxpayers’ Alliance said the objections were ridiculous and a waste of public money. Campaign director Mark Wallace said:
“They should pay more attention to the real concerns of older people – rising taxes and soaring household bills.”
Problem is, Mark, the ones kicking up the stink probably don’t have to worry about those things. That’s why they have so much free time on their hands to come up with ridiculous stuff like this. Whatever happened to eating ice cream on the benches in shopping centres and trying to get on the bus 10 minutes before their bus passes become valid?
Waterfowl warning sign
But the best response has to be the one that came from the Highways Agency. A spokesman said they would not be making further alterations.
“To change every sign in the country would cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds – and a change in the law.
“It’s not a simple process, and I don’t think most people would see it as a high priority for government spending.”
Quite. But while we’re on the subject I think the RSPB ought to start a campaign as a result of that highly offensive sign warning of waterfowl. Every duck and moorhen in the country should be compensated for the gross insult that sign has delivered concerning their appearance.