August 08 2006

Text By Greg Fallis

Ease right, detour...this is a party scene and the signs, lit up like hallucinatory Japanese lanterns, dance seductively and ask us to join them. Slow, oncoming traffic...this is an automotive zodiac, a colorful constellation of luminous faces predicting our immediate vehicular future. Steep grade, road work ahead...this is a volcanic eruption of color, an illuminating lava flow of driver information.

They use vivid colors on these signs for a reason: so we'll notice them. And we do, but most of us notice without actually seeing. We observe them, absorb the information, and keep going. We don't see the lines, the shapes, the colors, the bright bright colors.

Yield. It's the secret life of traffic signs. Merge. See beauty where it exists. No exit.