Not all heroes wear capes; some make signs.

The man in today’s story is a true hero, and all it took was a little research and some plywood!

Everyone who drives on the highway in his town is now very grateful!

Find out what he did…

Metered On Ramps

Back when metered on ramps were first installed on the main highway in my town in Oregon, the interval between lights on the ramp I used daily was 15 seconds.

Cars would be backed up onto the adjacent feeder streets, and you could be stuck for 15-20 minutes on the ramp.

OP took action!

Took a bit of research to find out that it wasn’t the City or County, but ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) that controlled them.

After repeated complaints and no action, I finally got the names of the two ODOT Traffic Engineers responsible for setting the light intervals.

Time to turn to the phone books!

I made numerous voicemails, and finally, had one discussion, but still no fix to the issue.

Well, back in the day (early 2000s), we still had phone books, and both these Engineers had listed home phone numbers.

I bet a lot of drivers noticed this sign!

I got a 4×8 piece of plywood and painted & lettered it:

“Tired of these idiotic ramp lights? Call the ODOT Engineers responsible for them.

Dennis Mxxxxxxx 503 xxx xxxx

Bill Cxx 503 xxx xxxx

And let them know what you think.”

I stood with it on the side of the ramp for 2 days, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

It worked!

The next day, I get a call from one of them (don’t remember which) begging me to stop.

I said, “Fix the lights.”

“You’ll stop with the sign?”

“Fix the lights.”

“OK.”

The very next day, they had a survey crew out there in the afternoon to count cars, and the day after that, the lights were reset to 3 seconds between cars.

Here’s the point of the story…

Bottom line: when dealing with government, until those personally responsible are held accountable in a manner that inconveniences or scares them, they will continue to abuse the public, whether from negligence, incompetence or malice.

But bring it home to them, and they will (grudgingly) change their ways.

A statue needs to be erected in this man’s honor!

Is Reddit as enthused by this story as I am? Let’s read the comments to find out!

Some Redditors’ cities had a more efficient automatic setup.

Other readers questioned why you wouldn’t want drivers happy.

And finally, some users who worked in government said it came down to two things.

This person saved the day and people’s time!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.