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New Zealand Creates Safety Billboard That Bleeds When It Rains

Posted by samzenpus on from the when-it-rains-it-gores dept.

Officials in Papakura, New Zealand have come up with a billboard that bleeds when it rains. They hope it will encourage drivers to slow down when the weather makes conditions dangerous. Since the billboards have been erected, there hasn't been a fatal accident in the area.

4 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Zero of nothing by Shihar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since the billboards have been erected, there hasn't been a fatal accident in the area.

    Of course, being New Zealand, since the billboard was erected there have not been any cars there either.

    1. Re:Zero of nothing by gnick · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Thats really a small number though that could depend on multiple variables. How do we know that the same amount of cars passed through it? For all we know there could have been a road that was under construction that people use now. Also did the road get any more improvements? What about weather? There would be a big difference if last year there were lots of storms. Etc.

      "Small" is entirely relative. Granted that road improvements, construction, weather, etc. could have affected numbers. (Freakish weather is less "variable" than the presence of bleeding billboards.) You are correct that there aren't enough data to do a thorough statistical analysis, but you seem to be grasping at straws. From 14 to 0 could be very statistically significant depending on the standard deviation from year-to-year and the elimination of outside influence. Just because 14 is "small" compared to your local Interstate exit doesn't mean that it's negligible for this stretch of NZ highway.

      "TFA" is worthless, but speculating on potential spikes in common, relatively flat variables should not eliminate the speculation on effects of observable variation in very prominent and very uncommon variables. Put more simply, and in a car analogy, if you install a set of used tires and 2 blow out during your normal commute home, look first at your tires and then at potential anomalies in the road.

      Plus, for all we know, most of those 14 deaths could have happened with one or two cars.

      OK, if you're in NZ (or really pretty much anywhere but India) 14 people in "one or two" cars would be a lot. 14 people in my car (or most any car) would require opening the sun-roof and me meeting a bunch of midgets. If you're going to pedant statistics, refrain from speculating on obvious outliers. 14 deaths in a 1-car wreck on a NZ highway? *Scoff*

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  2. How Long? by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Until someone crashes while gawking at the bleeding billboards?

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  3. Correlation is not causation by Tyler+Durden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why should we accept that the rain causes the billboard to bleed? Perhaps the bleeding of the billboard causes the rain...

    --
    Happy people make bad consumers.