In 2001, a friend and I had gotten so tired of a massive pot hole in Seattle that we went and got some vests and bags of asphalt and fixed it ourselves. We didn't live near it, but hung out down there almost daily and hated driving over it. People in the neighborhood asked if we were from the city, and we said no. People clapped, and one brought us iced tea. A city bus came by as we were finishing and was so happy he drove over it, backed up, and drove over it several times to pack it in. I drove by it earlier today for work, and our patch still holds.
Your's still holds. Now the cities, on the other hand. City "repairs" last months, if that. In Chicago once they made a big deal after filling in potholes on Lake Shore Drive from the prior TWO winters. The "repairs" lasted less than two months.
It had been like that for a long time. The had to have been hundreds of accidents. Fortunately, the speeds are seldom above 20mph so most were just fender benders.
this is a really bad spot; the fast lane must turn sharply left for the off ramp then a on ramp to the 5, the second lane has the option of turning or staying on the Pasadena, the issue is that they are almost a 90d turns, while the rest are going full speed of a freeway, i stay to the right, a few yards ahead there is an exit to Figueroa, left lane but more secure...
Crashes. Most collisions can be prevented, mostly through drivers paying attention, therefore NOT "accidents." Take responsibility for yourselves and your 2000lb death machine.
I HATED that transition. People would suddenly stop in the #2 lane so they could cut into it at the last moment, causing a lot of rear end collisions. That man in a hero.
If you were smart, during traffic, you'd stay out of the left hand lanes, because they were always going slower than the 110 north lanes, and then dart in at the last second. Good times!
Lol that's great! Little did you know at the time, someone put up the sign himself and it wasn't the city (and then I guess 8 years later the city did it)
Here in Australia some years ago a father was concerned about the speed that cars ran past his kid's school at dropoff and pickup times. There were speed limit signs but they weren't effective. He was some sort of engineer so he designed a flashing speed sign that was powered by a solar panel on top and a backup battery. It operated only around morning and afternoon kid times. A few weeks later and it was removed. So he put up another one and wrote about it to the local newspaper. Once he was identified they tried to charge him with something like defacing public property. However, he got the support of people everywhere as his case was elevated through different courts. The end was that the road and traffic department designed similar fittings and erected them at all school crossings in the state. A community win for the lone instigator.
Why does it take one person willing to risk personal injury to do the right thing to get government to do the right thing? It says a lot about how messed up governments are.
Typical Australian bureaucracy! Some idiot who never did a hard day’s work in his or her life and got an ‘important’ job in some local or State government office, getting vasyly overpaid, decides that this guy’s work is not authorised and sets about doing what all bureaucrats do best; making life hard for decent people who actually do productive work. People complain about politicians, but the real enemy is the bureaucrats. Politicians get voted in or out, but Bureaucrats are there forever.
The Australian government and their agencies absolutely hate it when a member of the public has a smarter idea than they do. Instead of adopting the idea, they take it to court to have it defeated because they didn't think of it.
Or they knew something the instigator didn't, that stopped them for now. Maybe the flashing sign was illegal and couldn't be used YET, otherwise there was the risk of court cases (and if someone did crash and claimed to crash because of the distraction of flashing sign, they'd win with the laws as they were) but everyone agreed it was a Good Idea, and had to get it done properly so they could use the sign. Bureaucracy knows one thing the public doesn't - how bad actors can exploit the bureaucracy to do harm. And they HATE that, because they constantly deal with said people looking to exploit the system. If people wouldn't do jerky things to require the bureaucracy to be so bureaucratic, the bureaucracy wouldn't have to be so inertial.
@nintendu64 grift in government is strong. How else can they justify their big overblown budgets and any future tax increases if they solve problems so fast and efficiently?
@@jimba6486 "I think you all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help." -Ronald Reagan
I lived in L.A. from 1986 to 2013 and I remember this sign popping up, it helped more than anyone could ever know, unless like myself, took that transition ramp daily.
Actually, the story about it being installed is probably what delayed the replacement. There'd be more than enough places wanting the sign (or part of it, those things are deceptively huge) as part of their museum.
Yes, but my recollection was the 5 North was a single lane (not the two lanes it is now and in this vid) and traffic would back up in the fast lane from last minute people that innocently did not move over or those drivers that simply refuse to get in the line and keep that traffic flowing better and being a significant contributor to the problem in the first place.
@@justletters7230 : Yes, that's how I remember it. I think that this video glosses over (or didn't know about) the switch from one lane to two lanes, which explains why they put in a new sign (and why the new sign looks different).
Indeed, but we don't want to encourage that kind of behavior. I remember other videos with people building stairs or fixing roads. Imagine : -someone does a sloppy job. It breaks and leads to injuries/property damage. -after a few years, it breaks (maybe not this particular one, but something similar) and injures someone. -there is an accident involving this, and the insurance refuses to pay since it way not made up to code. -it damages or obstruct access to something else, possibly hidden (underground pipes, for example) (again, maybe not this particular one). The solution is not having random resident try to solve a particular problem themselves. It's finding a way have an easy and definitive way to point to a person in charge for that job, and hold them accountable if said job is not done. The problem, is that the administration is really good at protecting itself : by being complex, it becomes impossible to point to a singular person in charge, therefore making any problem everyone's (and, therefore, no one's) responsbility.
@@ChibiNyanThis guy did not do a sloppy job so encouraging him is kind of the opposite of what you’re whining about. The government would love you though
Public servant can't give him credits cause that would motivate random people to do random things to "better the community". Some of those random things they do might actually be harmful despite good intention. The reason Richard got away with it was because he did it better than any official contractors could and the quality of his work is well documented.
My building manager put up an incorrect sign that caused me a few years worth of lost mail, angry delivery assholes and losing a day at work having to fix a snafu with my bank from lost mail (complicated), so I went and repainted the sign myself. No problems since. This guy is my new found patron saint! Never underestimate your own ability to fix a problem!
@troybaxter I live by this daily now. Most of the skills I know is quite literally because of the "fine, I'll do it myself" mindset. I'm in the middle of one, having to learn 3D rigging since none of the free models I've found were properly done. Apparently it's one of the things that most people who work in that field hates to do lol
A couple of my neighbors went through this. I kept getting their packages and take them over. One lady said she was gonna put a sign up showing the numbers which she did. I said I thought it was the gravel lane, it dips down and back up. They had it paved. I now only get their packages during bad snow. They both have ring doorbells so I just set it and leave.
Signs might be kind of obsolete for the majority of drivers but for truckers they're an absolute necessity. These trucks are over 70 feet long and of course nobody wants to let us over--so we have to be in the lane we need WAY ahead of time, which means we need to know what lane we need way ahead of time. As far as I'm concerned this guy still deserves a trophy and all the free beer he wants.
They're not obsolete. People are just dim and can't be trusted with tools lest they become fully dependent on them. The amount of dangerous driving I see when people almost miss an exit has gone up proportionaly with the adoption of navigation apps. Same with blind spot detection. People in cars with it simply don't check their blind spots anymore. People with backup cameras don't look behind them. Doesn't make a rear window obsolete, no matter what some manufacturers say. We really can't have nice things.
As someone who doesn't know where I'm going, SIGNS ARE EVERYTHING. Sure google maps exists, but looking down isn't always possible or viable. Google tells me my exit verbally, I look up for the sign of that exit, and there we go, I'm off to the correct lane much ahead of time. Especially thanks to exit sign markers that are miles ahead of an exit. Super tactful when riding a motorcycle as well. My headset tells me what road to get on, and everythings good. No wasting battery life with its screen on for hour long rides in the sun at full brightness, or risking having my phone fall off a mount on the freeway.
Speaking as someone who did food delivery full time for years, you really can't exclusively rely on google maps. It's not just big trucks. Especially downtown where all the the big buildings fuck with the gps
I let trucks merge. I guess I empathize with the drivers. I am not a truck driver, but I travel for work. I am on the road way too much!! Thank you to all the truck drivers out there!! Know that you are appreciated!!
@8:15 Caltrans waiting 8 years to replace the sign was actually very efficient use of their services. Why waste more taxpayer $$ by replacing a useful sign sooner?
Yep. They probably had their team go out and inspect it, and noted it was safe and up to their standards, and just left it until they had some budget for it. No sense in replacing it sooner.
I was one of the unfortunate suckers that was driving from San Diego with passengers in my 20 passenger Excursion limo and missed that stupid exit and was cussing the city out for no proper warning. Thank you for fixing it!
Did you notice... that sign is the same one shown in the theme for The Rockford Files... Too bad the theme didn't show the entire sign. Compare 5:49 here, and see The Rockford Theme at 0:38 seconds.
My father did something more dangerous when he was a kid. At the years 1970 in Brazil under a dictatorship, his street used to food every time when it rained. He made a sing wrote: "Proibido pescar", something like "fishing is forbidden" or "do not fish", and planted the sign at the middle of the flooded street. Mad people from mayor came knocking at neighbor house, where his old uncle lived. My father was concerned because all the family was affiliated with the (kinda) opposition party and sometimes police just cared to protect the regime party. The guys asked to my uncle "who did put that sign?". But our uncle was an old badass and just replied "I DON'T WANNA KNOW who put that sign! instead of asking that, you should just go and FIX THE STREET". Later, mayor build better drainage, and we still live at the same street. Sometimes the street floods again but now it's because weather is considerable worse than it used to be.
@@AfonsoBucco Speaking of Brazil reminds me of the movie Brazil where Robert DeNiro plays a guerilla appliance repairman in a future that is a bureaucratic nightmare where very little gets done :-)
@@unmesh59 "(1985) Brazil" is a great movie. Nothing something very specific about the country itself, but yes it fits in Brazil in far and general perspective. In certain point of view we are the newest power in planet, so it's interesting to see a try to portrait some of our problems in a dystopian future. Another movie about dystopian future is "Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury" also called "The Immortal Warrior". This movie talks about many other of our problems.
Retired long haul driver here, THANK YOU for your sign. If you knew how many of us used that sign to guide us safely along the insane CA freeway system, you would smile. some of us haver avoided accidents due to a private citizen doing the good work of the government.
Seriously, it’s yet another layer of the pile of crap that is the LA area traffic infrastructure, I love when people do something so professionally that no one questions their authority, entire careers are born on initiative like this, people could learn a thing or two from this guy
I moved to LA near this sign in 2000 and I routinely was in the wrong lane because I wasn't familiar with the directions. I did notice when the sign changed and at the time figured it was a routine correction! Bless this man.
I went to LA on holiday in 2000 and remember the cab driver saying "you wouldn't believe the accidents before they installed that sign" "It's just a sign" was my response. Like it didn't change the 1 lane turn off, the actual problem, but w/e it worked!
I read about this years ago. Between the time that Ankrum installed the sign and he leaked out that he installed it, apparently local Caltrans "divisions" thought neighbouring divisions had put the "5 North" addition on to that sign.
Moved into a “bad” neighborhood and noticed lots of low tree limbs blocking sight lines and making normal activities look suspicious. Went around and trimmed a bunch of low hanging branches. Changed the whole neighborhood, made it way less “scary” feeling because of better sight lines, and three years later families and dog owners are out every night enjoying a walk or the near by park.
@@JPs-q1o The city employee responsible for putting out the order to trim the trees probably doesn't live in that neighbourhood. How are they supposed to know this is needed if nobody calls it in? Most people probably didn't even realise what made it feel scary/unsafe, so they didn't know what to call in for. OP did a good thing, which the city should've done, no doubt about that but OP was pro-active and decided to do it himself. Nothing wrong with that. Doesn't make paying taxes bullshit, as there are still roads, street signs, police, hospitals and a government.
My buddy trimmed a tree branch obscuring the road sign, and german authorities dragged him through the court without conviction. Talk about no good deed unpunished.
This is the power in our new world. Our new earth is that we, humanity, not government take charge of our own lives and help each other out spread the love.
YES! The infrastructure would be safer and probably 100 times less expensive if it was privately owned. Coercive govt. is an extremely bad mistake, "The Most Dangerous Superstition".
@@1voluntaryist Can't trust "big gubment" so hand it over to big corporation we can't trust either. Clown take. You realize all those privatized toll roads and railroads we had in the 19th century were such an expensive burdensome nightmare for travelers that we collectively solved that. But ignore all that for your libertarian bogus agenda.
@@1voluntaryist I guarantee you that it would not be 100 times less expensive. If it was privately owned, it would probably be chintzy and someone would charge you money to use it.
@@1voluntaryist No. No it would not. Certain things are beneficial to be privately owned. Public infrastructure is not one of them. This has been proven time and time again. Private companies in these cases will cut corners to save money, not institute safety procedures to save money, and it would be a complete clusterfk. And even then, oftentimes government intervention is needed. Just look at auto manufacturers. The government and insurance companies had to force them to improve and implement many safety features we take for granted in our cars. Another example is pipeline construction and factory waste dumping. The government had to force them to improve because they refused to do it on their own.
I remember hearing about this story a while ago. He did such a great job that he exceeded every written standard that they used for road signs, which says something about the level of detail he put into it. Caltrans should hire this guy to improve their signage because it's awful.
CA is the only state I've driven in where so much signage just appears to be...missing. Sure the DOT elsewhere misses things here and there, but in CA basic info is missing for nearly every exit.
@@jblyon2 It's not so much the signage in California as it is about the lack of direction - especially with anything other than a conventional offramp. Above that, directional arrows seem to be an afterthought at best compared to the East Coast. So many of the Thruways and other highways give you a good idea of where you will go depending on what lane you choose with giant road signs with a simple map of the upcoming interchange on them. Not so much in California or the other two states on the West Coast.
I remember when this happened and I travel that route often. When Caltrans changed the sign, I think it was because they were replacing them all with a reflective, brighter tone of green so they could eliminate the lights, which they did. If they were not changing sign types, his work might still be up there.
Yeah, I noticed in the video that the new sign is a brighter shade of green than the old one. Glad that Caltrans didn't remove Ankrom's improvement simply because Caltrans hadn't done it themselves.
Is ANY THING, any agency or govt office in California "competent"? 😩😩 California literally seems like the state with the most taxes, that spends the most on govt "projects" & bureaucracy, but still gets the least done and people get the least in return! It just gets worse and worse every week, month and year. There is so much corruption and cronyism in California, God help us all, because that attitude and "way" of doing business is spreading across the country and the world. 😢😢😢
What was the fault here? The transition is 2.5 miles away. And there was already a sign a quarter mile AFTER this sign. This sign was not needed here. And this artist has been milking this stunt for 30+ years.
I wonder how many lives Ankrum saved with his substantial effort. When there isn't sufficient notice, drivers become confused. That was a great public service.
This raises a philosophical question Official policy is in place to ensure things go a particular way, if everything goes according to policy and fulfills the policy's intentions, then what is the difference between official action and this kind of action? Is it permission? Is it the lack of official records? Is it more?
We live on Taylor St in Vista, CA. They widened the road right up to my front yard and the 35 mph street is now blasted with cars all doing 50! We spent $10,000 putting one of our Australian Shepard dog's hip back together after she got hit by a car. We paid a PEOPLE SURGEON to fix "Checkers" up and she lived to be a ripe old age. Sooooo ... I went to the swap meet and bought a REAL 25 mph speed limit sign and swapped it out for the ignored 35 mph sign. WOW! It changed our lives for the better for a quiet 2 months. Then they took it down. A little school boy was almost killed soon after. They put in speed bumps 10 years later and that finally worked, though it took 34 years to make the road safe.
I remember when Vista was just orange groves and avocado fields with one main street and mostly dirt roads. It sure was nice back then... glad I was born early enough to see it.
Artists are hard to work with in a rigid institutional structure. Still some form of "Thank You" seems appropriate. Now, some years later his ideas seem to have been improved upon with indication on the road surface of which road a vehicle will be on after the next interchange.
Are you from LA? He didn't save countless lives and I've never heard of anyone having a hard time with that exit. It has always had a designated lane for that exit.
Yeah, I noticed that too. Makes me wonder how caltrans would have done it any safer? I mean, he even used the guardrails LOL. Perhaps caltrans would have made it safer by shutting down the freeway to one lane for a week while the workers sat up there and drank their iced frappuccinos LOL 🤣
Yes. How ironic. Worried about safety for one man instead of safety for all those drivers crossing over multiple lanes of heavy traffic to not miss their exit. 🤦🏻♀️
It's an attempt to save face, sure, but they can't go around encouraging people to improve signs themselves… Somebody might do a poor job; if the sign is not attached properly, it could fall down one day, causing an accident.
There is a gentleman in the US northeast that goes by the name Post10 on TH-cam. He travels around cleaning clogged pipes under roads, or storm drains that are blocked from draining. He films the process. He has been trained to do this and warns others in his videos not to do the same. He has likely saved hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in property damage and road repairs. Occasionally the police have stopped and asked what he is doing, and after he explains they have basically said, "Carry on". Lately he's having to work harder to find problem spots which tells me he's been doing a great job, and perhaps others are also helping as a result. It may also be that the road agencies in the states where he does his cleaning are doing a better job as well, either because they are embarrassed or they are motivated.
Posty is the man! Idiots in excavators ( and Beavers) are his nemesis. He is definitely the Richard Ankrom of Maine. His videos are strangely cathartic as well. Great comment.
That time his exploits raised awareness about a massive structural liability and potential collapse of critical infrastructure pretty much solidified his value to the authorities in his area. At this point, they know better than to obstruct him in any way. The most impressive part about that was that he refused to use his real name when the local news interviewed him, and only identified himself as his channel name. At that point, you knew he was just in it because he genuinely cares - he doesn't want any personal recognition.
We have a wooden pedestrian bridge nearby where some of the wood on the railing was damaged and for several years nothing happened. A small kid or animal could have fit through. There was also a small tree growing out of the planks already. It was a mess. I had two small brass signs engraved "This bridge is cared for by the city ...." and "We grow this tree right here on the bridge to be able to use it's timber for repairs some day." and attached them next to the tree and the damage. It took less than two weeks and everything was repaired and the signs removed.
I never knew this and I ACTUALLY SAW THAT EXACT SIGN for years in Downtown L.A. since my grandmother's house was near USC/MLK Jr Blvd. Never thought anything "out of the ordinary" about it because, like you said, it was so convincing. Thanks for sharing this.
This was an extremely rare case of vandalism where it was not a malicious act. It was actually kindhearted, and Richard's work saved countless lives and accidents.
Yeah, I’m sure you thought it looked a little “off”, that’s why you never said anything to anyone about it until you learned it was installed by a vandal. 🤣 Give me a freaking break!
@@samueltaylor4989 if you saw the sign when it was initially up, it looked off. weirdly off center and had some odd weather damage probably related to the adhesive used to alter the sign.
2:31 I disagree heavily on this. The difference between driving down a road glancing at Google Maps but being able to keep my eyes on the road following proper signage is a massive difference from having to glue my eyes to my phone.
CalTrans should've hired this guy!!! He took the job he was doing just as seriously as the state agency would've. Bravo sir, thanks for helping your community
The fact that you think California's goverment actually gives two flying Fs. I mean he planned it for 2 years and then they said "F it, it got done" and they let it sit for 8 more years so it was well known for over 2 years before hand.
I live in Monterey. According to google map, it only takes me 4 hrs 45 mins to 5 hours to go see my parents. Wrong...if I don't leave Monterey before 8 AM... then I won't see my parents until 5-6pm. That is freaking crazy. Hit traffics as soon as I go over Tejon Pass. I dread driving through LA.
Yes, sometimes GPS isn't accurate and you just miss your exit because it tells you too late. When the exits are so sharp or quickly coming like in this case you really need signage to help instead.
my uncle owned a paint and body shop in an industrial area. Across the street was a cannery. Cannery workers would park right infront of his shop and he could not get his gate open to let cars in or out. One day my uncle paints the curb red infront of his shop for about 15 feet in each direction. Over time he even saw cops writing tickets. One day he sees a crew from the city looking at the curb and he thinks he is busted, nope, the city crew repainted the curb with a new coat of paint.
There’s this guy in the UK who gets pissed with shop signs that omit the apostrophe. He goes round in the middle of the night painting apostrophes on these signs !! Another Hero !!
So is what Gary Webb did #2? Gary Webb exposed the CIA for creating the formula to turn cocaine into crack cocaine and provided the drugs in LA so they could use the money independent from a congressional budget and enslave an entire demographic and destroy lives and their families. The CIA got a slap on the wrist and Gary was murdered.
Can he come to San Francisco and add street name signs to many corners where they’re missing? I don’t know if people take them, or if the city is just totally indifferent to labeling our streets, but it gets old driving a mile down a street and not being sure which street you’re on.
I am glad he put this info in before I start traveling to the San Diego area frequently for business. I most went north of the city to where I did my work. And cheers to a possible relative to fixing it!
At the very least, it was far less expensive. I recently managed to escape that state. If you spend your entire life there, you never realize the degree to which public works projects in California are little more than vehicles to launder tax money into private pockets.
Supposedly they did an inspection of the sign he installed and found that it basically met the strict standards set by the state (and the federal government, because it's an Interstate), such as dimensions, visibility, font, and all kinds of nitpicky shit, and let it stay. They replaced it 8 years later because the sign panel itself was ageing, new fonts and misc signage standards over the years, etc, and they replaced the entire thing altogether. But his addition was basically formalized.
Bad signage is one of those things that will have people cutting across a half-dozen lanes at the last minute, so in a way doing something about it is actually improving public safety. A lot of civil engineers and transportation planners still seem to miss this kind of thing for some unknown reason though.
@@joeysplats3209*desparate drivers in a rush and can't afford to miss a turn they didn't know would be so soon. Yeah a bad way to drive but it could be the only act of poor driving behavior some people perpetrate and only bc there was so little warning.
@@joeysplats3209 It sets up the situation for it to occur more likely, since people panic when there isn't a good opportunity to turn around or go in the right direction for another 20 miles. The people who don't think about this when designing infrastructure are just serving drivers a crap sandwich they don't want, and it's not entirely the fault of situational awareness because no good cues are being provided in the first place.
Often it's bureaucrats at the upper levels in the Capital who aren't familiar with local traffic. Some years ago my little somewhat touristy hometown -- on a river that flows out from an entire Great Lake, and is divided by a small river that flows into the big river -- got State bucks to enhance tourism through roadwork. For some reason the State planners insisted on turning the first (or last) street past (or before) the drawbridge over the little river into a one way coming _from_ the big river tourist attractions. Citizens who had lived in the area for years, if not their whole lives, got so confused! The farmers market is in that area, so there's a lot of traffic on those days, along with all the tourist traffic in summer. Needless to say, there's a drawbridge over the little river because of sailboats and big cruising yachts. So there you are sitting in sweltering summer heat, running the AC, using up fuel, spewing out actual pollution plus carbon, waiting for the line of boats to go past as the drawbridge is raised, all because you missed your chance to turn before you got to the drawbridge. And that's including the lifelong residents who had always taken that turn at the drawbridge. I don't know how long it took for us to get permission to change that design, but it was years, and required more tax dollars to change the signage and street layout again. What a waste! All because of bureaucrats who are unfamiliar with this town.
This kind of stuff reminds me of the channels showing people cleaning storm drains to alleviate street flooding. It may seem small, but it really does make a huge difference. Props to people that do things like that.
A perfect example of the adage - easier to apologize afterwards....than ask permission beforehand. Kudos for the initiative, the know-how, and gonads to pull this off.
For the amount of potential lives this saved due to possible accidents people have when they cut across lanes to make their exit this guy is a hero and should be recognized as such by the city.
I agree with you and another poster I've scrolled past who suggested naming the exit after him. I live in a *much* different place, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area (and always laughed that the "Cincinnati" airport is in Florence, Ky). One day, the residents on a side street got notices from Rumpke that they would have to drag their garbage cans and recycle bins to a specific intersection, some as far as 3 blocks away, because the road was in such a state of disrepair that they refused to risk a 5th full size garbage truck breaking an axle and the extra cost in towing because the layout of the area meant special equipment had to be brought in to move the broken down vehicle safely. The problem lies in geography and topography. This is an excessively hilly area! And this causes both roads to snake and curve and straight lines drawn very clearly on maps to determine which of the government's pockets pays for which stretch of road to be repaired to get rather blurred when you actually go look at it in person. Basically, it was a 5 way argument and nobody wanted to be the one to pay. Everybody agreed the worked needed to be done right away; they just thought the other entities should pay for it basically. It made the 10 o'clock news when several of the neighbors got together with family members, pooled money and equipment and started paving the road themselves. The cops came by, told them to stop. There were enough of them sick and tired of it that they basically (and very colorfully) told them to go fly a kite because their families were going to have a safe road whether the city liked it or not. The City attorney served a cease and desist order. They kept working till the sun went down. The next morning, after looking bad on TV, the city had a road crew out there to finish the job and it was done in 1 day. As far as I'm aware, not a single politician involved got reelected when their term was up. What a pity 😂
Not just lives saved. Relationships as well. "It's left up here", "No honey, there isn't a sign", "It's LEFT dumb ass", "I still don't see... oh....." [screeching tyres], "Didn't I say left. Where you sleeping tonight?".
At least. As someone who has driven through big cities all over the west, these big interchanges feel likes flumes: once you are sucked into the vortex you just have to ride it down. If you are not properly placed lane wise, you have to get off, circle way back, get on again and try again. Or just find another way to the highway you were trying to get on. Either way, it can be a nightmare.
It can be even more difficult since it isn’t a standard freeway. Many of the exits there you have to drive a bit to find the way back on. There isn’t always an overpass or underpass nearby.
8:00 THIS is how our officials should be. She praised the guy then basically said "I love it, but this is the real world and we just can't allow anybody to randomly change our signs so we'll have to replace it with an official one and we hope others don't make this a trend". No grandstanding, no being an idiot. She's one of the good ones.
The only thing she did well was waving the flag after someone else completed a job that she was supposed (and paid) to do. A "good one" would have admitted the failure to put up a sign in the first place. And the fact that it took 8 years to replace that hand-made sign with an "official version" speaks volumes about how "efficient" her department is at doing their work. To be fair, they did have a good excuse to delay the replacement: that "hand made" sign looked perfect!
@@BondiAV She can't just wave her hand at have it dealt with. There's paperwork that needs to be signed and roads that need to be closed. It was a small problem in a city that is fucking massive and the would have other fish to fry. Is it inefficient? Yes but that's how things work. She was perfectly right in saying "yes this guy did a good job but we can't condone it because we have the follow city code and if people get hurt it's a problem." It worked so the city planners put it on the back burner but they did have to take care of it.
@@funnynameforme4091 What "roads that need to be closed"? One man made and installed that sign by himself, in a professional manner, without any traffic disturbance; proving that it can be done quite easily when paper pushers don't make it much more difficult than it needs to be. "if people get hurt it's a problem" but all the accidents that happened because that sign didn't exist were not a problem? Any "massive city" has a massive army of people who are in charge of such work, so that excuse does not hold water either. The saddest part of it is that they also trained you to believe that this is normal... "that's how things work" only when people fail at doing their jobs and nobody cares.
This man is a good citizen. I wonder how many accidents he has preventeted, and indeed how many lives he has saved.We need people like him.Stay crazy. God bless you sir.
I remember when the sign popped up. I had driven that route before and I always knew where the turn off was to get to the I-5 North, but I think it made it easier for people who were not as familiar with the freeway. There were less people trying to merge at the last minute. Good job Mr Ankrom!
This is incredible and I’m so glad he took such care and initiative. There are other signs on the LA freeways that are still super confusing. There is a part where you won’t continue going the 5 North unless you’ve don’t it before. You could go South or get off the freeway completely. It’s frustrating.
Thankfully, the woman from Caltrans was good about it and no one started pushing the "illegal" aspect of this act. This guy is a sign maker and a true professional. The fact that his sign stayed up for 8 years before being replaced by an "official" sign, tells us that they inspected his work and knew that it was great. If it had been any sort of a safety concern, they would have taken it down and then they would have taken legal action. Great job and great video.
I think he waited until the statute of limitations ran out for arrest. This would have been, at best, a misdemeanor which has a very low SOL threshold compared to felonies.
@@louisbouchard6869 this was a big one. But he claims to have done others that have not been disclosed. While CalTrans would have had a big PR black eye if they went after him back then other locations may well treat it differently.
I'm not from California and have never used the freeway (parkway), but really, what he did is above and beyond. If the responsible people don't function, someone else needs to.
I remember when this happened. I drove this stretch nearly every day. I was so surprised that Caltrans actually fixed this, then read an article that it was actually an artist! Fantastic!
So the original video is 10 minutes and has David Lynch-vibes. This video is 09:30 minutes and has royalty free brostep music. Why on earth am I watching this video
In 2001, a friend and I had gotten so tired of a massive pot hole in Seattle that we went and got some vests and bags of asphalt and fixed it ourselves. We didn't live near it, but hung out down there almost daily and hated driving over it. People in the neighborhood asked if we were from the city, and we said no. People clapped, and one brought us iced tea. A city bus came by as we were finishing and was so happy he drove over it, backed up, and drove over it several times to pack it in. I drove by it earlier today for work, and our patch still holds.
You’re giving me an idea - I have a few ‘pet’ divots.
Nice ... 💪💪👍👍
Your's still holds. Now the cities, on the other hand. City "repairs" last months, if that. In Chicago once they made a big deal after filling in potholes on Lake Shore Drive from the prior TWO winters. The "repairs" lasted less than two months.
Hero
Also - where in Seattle? I’ll try to visit it next time I find myself in Skedootle
It was refreshing to hear that CalTrans lady officially state that they appreciated his work and want to use it. Nice!
I was actually really surprised at that.
Good PR "chops". Sometimes they hire people that know how to do their job.
This was the 1990s
What she basically said in the interview was, "He did it too efficiently, so we'll have to do it all over again but much more inefficiently.".
Right! when does the scenario actually result in a win for both sides.
I wonder how many lives he saved because people weren't diving across multiple lanes to not miss the exit?
Richard Ankrom, I salute you.
Yes, the Driver Safety angle is Noted.
Exactly and more states than Cali have this interstate signage issue.
8 years worth of probabilities in this word of entropy. Many MANY lives he saved.
It had been like that for a long time. The had to have been hundreds of accidents.
Fortunately, the speeds are seldom above 20mph so most were just fender benders.
Yes, lives were saved. For sure.
It's not trivial. Bad signage causes accidents, and he probably saved someone's life. Thanks.❤️❤️❤️
That a good response to their safety talking point.
He should still be receiving residual income from insurance companies!
this is a really bad spot; the fast lane must turn sharply left for the off ramp then a on ramp to the 5, the second lane has the option of turning or staying on the Pasadena, the issue is that they are almost a 90d turns, while the rest are going full speed of a freeway, i stay to the right, a few yards ahead there is an exit to Figueroa, left lane but more secure...
Considering the number of car accidents he prevented, his work was well worth the time.
Truth!
Lives saved!
Crashes. Most collisions can be prevented, mostly through drivers paying attention, therefore NOT "accidents." Take responsibility for yourselves and your 2000lb death machine.
@@KitC916 Not many 2000 pound death machines any more. The average death machine going under that sign is 4000 pounds.
Ну ты же понял о чём речь. @@KitC916
@@KitC916if they didn’t intend to crash, then it is an “accident” even if it’s due to negligence.
I HATED that transition. People would suddenly stop in the #2 lane so they could cut into it at the last moment, causing a lot of rear end collisions. That man in a hero.
@@EdGwhaddafook Becasue they didn't know that the #2 lane veered off too.
they fixed i, by adding a second lane, but people misuses it.
@@mizzury54 It didn't for many years, it was just ONE lane.
If you were smart, during traffic, you'd stay out of the left hand lanes, because they were always going slower than the 110 north lanes, and then dart in at the last second.
Good times!
@@whodidit99 Yes...they only added the second lane about, what, 10 years ago?
They should name the exit after him.
Great idea!
Agreed
Agreed. The 'Ankrom Exit' even has a nice ring to it.
I say better yet.. Rename the bridge overpass right in front of the highway signage after him
@@alexguzman8205 Hummm.
As a truck driver, i remember when i first saw that sign. I said, to myself? Well, its about time!
Lol that's great! Little did you know at the time, someone put up the sign himself and it wasn't the city (and then I guess 8 years later the city did it)
Here in Australia some years ago a father was concerned about the speed that cars ran past his kid's school at dropoff and pickup times. There were speed limit signs but they weren't effective. He was some sort of engineer so he designed a flashing speed sign that was powered by a solar panel on top and a backup battery. It operated only around morning and afternoon kid times. A few weeks later and it was removed. So he put up another one and wrote about it to the local newspaper. Once he was identified they tried to charge him with something like defacing public property. However, he got the support of people everywhere as his case was elevated through different courts. The end was that the road and traffic department designed similar fittings and erected them at all school crossings in the state. A community win for the lone instigator.
Good for him! 👏👏
Why does it take one person willing to risk personal injury to do the right thing to get government to do the right thing? It says a lot about how messed up governments are.
Typical Australian bureaucracy! Some idiot who never did a hard day’s work in his or her life and got an ‘important’ job in some local or State government office, getting vasyly overpaid, decides that this guy’s work is not authorised and sets about doing what all bureaucrats do best; making life hard for decent people who actually do productive work. People complain about politicians, but the real enemy is the bureaucrats. Politicians get voted in or out, but Bureaucrats are there forever.
The Australian government and their agencies absolutely hate it when a member of the public has a smarter idea than they do. Instead of adopting the idea, they take it to court to have it defeated because they didn't think of it.
Or they knew something the instigator didn't, that stopped them for now.
Maybe the flashing sign was illegal and couldn't be used YET, otherwise there was the risk of court cases (and if someone did crash and claimed to crash because of the distraction of flashing sign, they'd win with the laws as they were) but everyone agreed it was a Good Idea, and had to get it done properly so they could use the sign.
Bureaucracy knows one thing the public doesn't - how bad actors can exploit the bureaucracy to do harm. And they HATE that, because they constantly deal with said people looking to exploit the system.
If people wouldn't do jerky things to require the bureaucracy to be so bureaucratic, the bureaucracy wouldn't have to be so inertial.
Honestly that man probably saved lives. So definitely not a waste of time.
I thought the same thing. His snarky remarks about the guy not having better things to do were a bit uncalled for.
@nintendu64 grift in government is strong.
How else can they justify their big overblown budgets and any future tax increases if they solve problems so fast and efficiently?
LMFAO, the best part is that he has done it multiple times, and no one, other him, knows how many and where.
i know, i’m so curious!
If the sign was helpful, it was probably because it is not from the government.
So true. @@jimba6486
@@jimba6486 "I think you all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help."
-Ronald Reagan
@@OptiPopulus That phrase reminds me when one of my nephews went trick or treating as an IRS agent, complete with briefcase.
I lived in L.A. from 1986 to 2013 and I remember this sign popping up, it helped more than anyone could ever know, unless like myself, took that transition ramp daily.
Its neither street art nor vandalism, it’s simply doing the job the council is failing at.
Meanwhile, as the newsom lost billions in tax money🤦
Part 2
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Actually, the story about it being installed is probably what delayed the replacement.
There'd be more than enough places wanting the sign (or part of it, those things are deceptively huge) as part of their museum.
When I get caught at a RR crossing it is like a rolling art gallery passing by, some of it very good.
Richard "Gets Shit Done" Ankrom needs to be hired by Caltrans for it's planning committee
This is literally the “Fine, I’ll do it myself” lol, what a mad lad
"mad lad", I've just gotta ask. Where in this wide world do you hail from. I'm Aussie and I've noticed Us, Brits & NZ say it a lot
@@ServiceUnavailable ? why do you ask
@@starsilverinfinity because I've only ever known Brits, Irish, Scots, Aussies & Kiwis say "mad lad"
@@ServiceUnavailable Oh, well where Im from people use it all the time on the internet - im from across the pond and all that
Part 2
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As someone who regularly drove on the 110 in the 1990s, I can confirm that this artist is a hero.
Yes, but my recollection was the 5 North was a single lane (not the two lanes it is now and in this vid) and traffic would back up in the fast lane from last minute people that innocently did not move over or those drivers that simply refuse to get in the line and keep that traffic flowing better and being a significant contributor to the problem in the first place.
@@justletters7230 : Yes, that's how I remember it. I think that this video glosses over (or didn't know about) the switch from one lane to two lanes, which explains why they put in a new sign (and why the new sign looks different).
Indeed, but we don't want to encourage that kind of behavior. I remember other videos with people building stairs or fixing roads. Imagine :
-someone does a sloppy job. It breaks and leads to injuries/property damage.
-after a few years, it breaks (maybe not this particular one, but something similar) and injures someone.
-there is an accident involving this, and the insurance refuses to pay since it way not made up to code.
-it damages or obstruct access to something else, possibly hidden (underground pipes, for example) (again, maybe not this particular one).
The solution is not having random resident try to solve a particular problem themselves. It's finding a way have an easy and definitive way to point to a person in charge for that job, and hold them accountable if said job is not done. The problem, is that the administration is really good at protecting itself : by being complex, it becomes impossible to point to a singular person in charge, therefore making any problem everyone's (and, therefore, no one's) responsbility.
@@ChibiNyanThis guy did not do a sloppy job so encouraging him is kind of the opposite of what you’re whining about. The government would love you though
@@DeathnoteBB hahahaha shame on them for not doing their job and waited long 8yrs to correct it.
Richard Ankrom is a real hero.
After 4 months, The 110 video has 110k views.
Excellent video. Thank you.
This man should receive some sort of Community Service Award from the Mayor. He clearly loves his city and the welfare of his neighbors
Public servant can't give him credits cause that would motivate random people to do random things to "better the community".
Some of those random things they do might actually be harmful despite good intention.
The reason Richard got away with it was because he did it better than any official contractors could and the quality of his work is well documented.
Part 2
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A key to the city 🫡
It’s Cali 😂😂😂 worthless government
Is no one gonna talk about how he looks like the spitting-image of Virgin-founder and international mogul Richard Branson. ??
My building manager put up an incorrect sign that caused me a few years worth of lost mail, angry delivery assholes and losing a day at work having to fix a snafu with my bank from lost mail (complicated), so I went and repainted the sign myself. No problems since.
This guy is my new found patron saint! Never underestimate your own ability to fix a problem!
"Never underestimate your own ability to fix a problem". So true, such a good mindset.
The older I get, the more I realize that most people don't know what they are doing and most things will remain broken until you fix it.
@troybaxter I live by this daily now. Most of the skills I know is quite literally because of the "fine, I'll do it myself" mindset. I'm in the middle of one, having to learn 3D rigging since none of the free models I've found were properly done. Apparently it's one of the things that most people who work in that field hates to do lol
Charge your landlord a fix it fee.
A couple of my neighbors went through this. I kept getting their packages and take them over. One lady said she was gonna put a sign up showing the numbers which she did. I said I thought it was the gravel lane, it dips down and back up. They had it paved. I now only get their packages during bad snow. They both have ring doorbells so I just set it and leave.
Signs might be kind of obsolete for the majority of drivers but for truckers they're an absolute necessity. These trucks are over 70 feet long and of course nobody wants to let us over--so we have to be in the lane we need WAY ahead of time, which means we need to know what lane we need way ahead of time. As far as I'm concerned this guy still deserves a trophy and all the free beer he wants.
well, technically this sign doesnt really help you because that Lane is marked as "NO TRUCKS" ;) :P
They're not obsolete. People are just dim and can't be trusted with tools lest they become fully dependent on them.
The amount of dangerous driving I see when people almost miss an exit has gone up proportionaly with the adoption of navigation apps.
Same with blind spot detection. People in cars with it simply don't check their blind spots anymore. People with backup cameras don't look behind them. Doesn't make a rear window obsolete, no matter what some manufacturers say.
We really can't have nice things.
As someone who doesn't know where I'm going, SIGNS ARE EVERYTHING. Sure google maps exists, but looking down isn't always possible or viable. Google tells me my exit verbally, I look up for the sign of that exit, and there we go, I'm off to the correct lane much ahead of time. Especially thanks to exit sign markers that are miles ahead of an exit. Super tactful when riding a motorcycle as well. My headset tells me what road to get on, and everythings good. No wasting battery life with its screen on for hour long rides in the sun at full brightness, or risking having my phone fall off a mount on the freeway.
Speaking as someone who did food delivery full time for years, you really can't exclusively rely on google maps. It's not just big trucks.
Especially downtown where all the the big buildings fuck with the gps
I let trucks merge. I guess I empathize with the drivers. I am not a truck driver, but I travel for work. I am on the road way too much!!
Thank you to all the truck drivers out there!! Know that you are appreciated!!
@8:15 Caltrans waiting 8 years to replace the sign was actually very efficient use of their services. Why waste more taxpayer $$ by replacing a useful sign sooner?
Yep. They probably had their team go out and inspect it, and noted it was safe and up to their standards, and just left it until they had some budget for it. No sense in replacing it sooner.
@@kennytheamazing It wasn't broke, so they didn't fix it. Sound reasoning all around. 👍
Even more savings when they didn't fix it long enough, and a taxpayer did it on his own dime 😂
I was one of the unfortunate suckers that was driving from San Diego with passengers in my 20 passenger Excursion limo and missed that stupid exit and was cussing the city out for no proper warning. Thank you for fixing it!
Thanks for not trying to take it last minute like most would in your situation
Did you notice... that sign is the same one shown in the theme for The Rockford Files... Too bad the theme didn't show the entire sign. Compare 5:49 here, and see The Rockford Theme at 0:38 seconds.
Cap. From San Diego? This sign is nowhere near San Diego.
"Guerrilla Public Servant" is an awesome description.
A good GPS is worth it :)
My father did something more dangerous when he was a kid. At the years 1970 in Brazil under a dictatorship, his street used to food every time when it rained.
He made a sing wrote: "Proibido pescar", something like "fishing is forbidden" or "do not fish", and planted the sign at the middle of the flooded street.
Mad people from mayor came knocking at neighbor house, where his old uncle lived. My father was concerned because all the family was affiliated with the (kinda) opposition party and sometimes police just cared to protect the regime party. The guys asked to my uncle "who did put that sign?". But our uncle was an old badass and just replied "I DON'T WANNA KNOW who put that sign! instead of asking that, you should just go and FIX THE STREET".
Later, mayor build better drainage, and we still live at the same street. Sometimes the street floods again but now it's because weather is considerable worse than it used to be.
I thought he said "gorilla" 😂😂😂
@@AfonsoBucco Speaking of Brazil reminds me of the movie Brazil where Robert DeNiro plays a guerilla appliance repairman in a future that is a bureaucratic nightmare where very little gets done :-)
@@unmesh59 "(1985) Brazil" is a great movie. Nothing something very specific about the country itself, but yes it fits in Brazil in far and general perspective.
In certain point of view we are the newest power in planet, so it's interesting to see a try to portrait some of our problems in a dystopian future.
Another movie about dystopian future is "Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury" also called "The Immortal Warrior". This movie talks about many other of our problems.
Retired long haul driver here, THANK YOU for your sign. If you knew how many of us used that sign to guide us safely along the insane CA freeway system, you would smile. some of us haver avoided accidents due to a private citizen doing the good work of the government.
Seriously, it’s yet another layer of the pile of crap that is the LA area traffic infrastructure, I love when people do something so professionally that no one questions their authority, entire careers are born on initiative like this, people could learn a thing or two from this guy
A government doesn't work. What works is people helping people
@@JannyMaha It works, but like in a Temu kind of way 😅
@@JannyMahathat’s what a government is, the people organising themselves
@@raycath0de so you say..
This kinda made my day. He probably saved a lot of accidents from happening.
I moved to LA near this sign in 2000 and I routinely was in the wrong lane because I wasn't familiar with the directions. I did notice when the sign changed and at the time figured it was a routine correction! Bless this man.
I went to LA on holiday in 2000 and remember the cab driver saying "you wouldn't believe the accidents before they installed that sign"
"It's just a sign" was my response. Like it didn't change the 1 lane turn off, the actual problem, but w/e it worked!
I read about this years ago. Between the time that Ankrum installed the sign and he leaked out that he installed it, apparently local Caltrans "divisions" thought neighbouring divisions had put the "5 North" addition on to that sign.
🎉 That's an excellent addition to the story! 🎉
@@brucelipsitz7545
Divisions of incompetent parasites who didn't fix the problem the first time, and took 8 years to copy the work of the amateur...
Part 2
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Fair play to the man, he saw a problem and he fixed it.
White Man things
Constructive vandalism.
It's called "doing shit yourself because the government is too lazy to do it"
@@mozzarellamaniac6300Lazy or incompetent?
@@jeffa5707 When talking about federal and state governments, is there a difference?
Moved into a “bad” neighborhood and noticed lots of low tree limbs blocking sight lines and making normal activities look suspicious. Went around and trimmed a bunch of low hanging branches. Changed the whole neighborhood, made it way less “scary” feeling because of better sight lines, and three years later families and dog owners are out every night enjoying a walk or the near by park.
Remind me. What do taxes pay for again?
@@JPs-q1o The city employee responsible for putting out the order to trim the trees probably doesn't live in that neighbourhood. How are they supposed to know this is needed if nobody calls it in? Most people probably didn't even realise what made it feel scary/unsafe, so they didn't know what to call in for. OP did a good thing, which the city should've done, no doubt about that but OP was pro-active and decided to do it himself. Nothing wrong with that. Doesn't make paying taxes bullshit, as there are still roads, street signs, police, hospitals and a government.
My buddy trimmed a tree branch obscuring the road sign, and german authorities dragged him through the court without conviction. Talk about no good deed unpunished.
Are you a man or a woman please? In my opinion men’s voices and subsequent actions have been sorely missed.
@@Yvolve Calm rational perspective has no place in TH-cam comments ;)
This is the power in our new world. Our new earth is that we, humanity, not government take charge of our own lives and help each other out spread the love.
Absolutely that! ♥🌟
He probably saved lives and helped avoid crashes, bravo to him!!
YES! The infrastructure would be safer and probably 100 times less expensive if it was privately owned. Coercive govt. is an extremely bad mistake, "The Most Dangerous Superstition".
@@1voluntaryist Can't trust "big gubment" so hand it over to big corporation we can't trust either. Clown take. You realize all those privatized toll roads and railroads we had in the 19th century were such an expensive burdensome nightmare for travelers that we collectively solved that. But ignore all that for your libertarian bogus agenda.
@@1voluntaryist I guarantee you that it would not be 100 times less expensive. If it was privately owned, it would probably be chintzy and someone would charge you money to use it.
@@1voluntaryist No. No it would not. Certain things are beneficial to be privately owned. Public infrastructure is not one of them. This has been proven time and time again. Private companies in these cases will cut corners to save money, not institute safety procedures to save money, and it would be a complete clusterfk. And even then, oftentimes government intervention is needed. Just look at auto manufacturers. The government and insurance companies had to force them to improve and implement many safety features we take for granted in our cars. Another example is pipeline construction and factory waste dumping. The government had to force them to improve because they refused to do it on their own.
@@1voluntaryist Uggggggggggh it's a libertarian. Don't you have a NAMBLA meeting to attend?
I remember hearing about this story a while ago. He did such a great job that he exceeded every written standard that they used for road signs, which says something about the level of detail he put into it. Caltrans should hire this guy to improve their signage because it's awful.
CA is the only state I've driven in where so much signage just appears to be...missing. Sure the DOT elsewhere misses things here and there, but in CA basic info is missing for nearly every exit.
@@jblyon2 Yup! The signage is either missing, poorly done in the first place or just neglected.
@@jblyon2 It's not so much the signage in California as it is about the lack of direction - especially with anything other than a conventional offramp. Above that, directional arrows seem to be an afterthought at best compared to the East Coast. So many of the Thruways and other highways give you a good idea of where you will go depending on what lane you choose with giant road signs with a simple map of the upcoming interchange on them. Not so much in California or the other two states on the West Coast.
Start him at LAX. Come to think about it, signage in California is diseased.
@@jblyon2 Like speed limit signs?
So I owe this man for making the path to my grandma safer. Good to know
OUTSTANDING!! In RL we call this "Getting It Done" Nice job sir.
I remember when this happened and I travel that route often. When Caltrans changed the sign, I think it was because they were replacing them all with a reflective, brighter tone of green so they could eliminate the lights, which they did. If they were not changing sign types, his work might still be up there.
Yes, it was because they refreshed the signs with fully retroflective material that the cars themselves illuminate for its drivers.
Yeah, I noticed in the video that the new sign is a brighter shade of green than the old one. Glad that Caltrans didn't remove Ankrom's improvement simply because Caltrans hadn't done it themselves.
I am glad his work stayed up for eight years
They should have given him the old one as a memento!
@@andrewrothman9831 i remember when the sign was replaced. he went to the junkyard where it was moved to but was unsuccessful locating it.
It’s 100% the fault of CalTrans for being incompetent and not fixing the sign before a citizen did.
the people need to be like caltrans you have a month to do it or we will and you dont have a say in it
It is a Sacramento tradition.
At the time republican governors slashed budgets so much that Caltrans was underfunded and understaffed....all in the name of lower taxes.
Is ANY THING, any agency or govt office in California "competent"? 😩😩 California literally seems like the state with the most taxes, that spends the most on govt "projects" & bureaucracy, but still gets the least done and people get the least in return! It just gets worse and worse every week, month and year. There is so much corruption and cronyism in California, God help us all, because that attitude and "way" of doing business is spreading across the country and the world. 😢😢😢
What was the fault here? The transition is 2.5 miles away. And there was already a sign a quarter mile AFTER this sign. This sign was not needed here. And this artist has been milking this stunt for 30+ years.
I wonder how many lives Ankrum saved with his substantial effort. When there isn't sufficient notice, drivers become confused. That was a great public service.
Unironically, Dallas could learn from this.
@@ritamariekelley4077 he deserves a key to the city
exactly !
Oh for sure... how many videos I've seen where the very confused person STOPS in the freeway, wondering what to do.
This raises a philosophical question
Official policy is in place to ensure things go a particular way, if everything goes according to policy and fulfills the policy's intentions, then what is the difference between official action and this kind of action?
Is it permission? Is it the lack of official records? Is it more?
We live on Taylor St in Vista, CA. They widened the road right up to my front yard and the 35 mph street is now blasted with cars all doing 50! We spent $10,000 putting one of our Australian Shepard dog's hip back together after she got hit by a car. We paid a PEOPLE SURGEON to fix "Checkers" up and she lived to be a ripe old age. Sooooo ... I went to the swap meet and bought a REAL 25 mph speed limit sign and swapped it out for the ignored 35 mph sign. WOW! It changed our lives for the better for a quiet 2 months. Then they took it down. A little school boy was almost killed soon after. They put in speed bumps 10 years later and that finally worked, though it took 34 years to make the road safe.
@@donshively9395 Next time move. The speed limits in California are absurd. Seriously great story.
I remember when Vista was just orange groves and avocado fields with one main street and mostly dirt roads. It sure was nice back then... glad I was born early enough to see it.
How very irresponsible of you to allow your dog to walk out into the road. But yes, other people are the problem.
LOL a *real* 25 mph sign at a swap meet -- there has to be a story behind this one, too
@@andreafong9952 You say that as if moving is a trivial thing
I was lucky enough that when I finally got my license, I had seen my father make that turn a million times before. Thanks dad.
CalTrans should hire this guy! He saw a problem, fixed it himself, and potentially saved countless lives.
Artists are hard to work with in a rigid institutional structure. Still some form of "Thank You" seems appropriate. Now, some years later his ideas seem to have been improved upon with indication on the road surface of which road a vehicle will be on after the next interchange.
Are you from LA? He didn't save countless lives and I've never heard of anyone having a hard time with that exit. It has always had a designated lane for that exit.
“Saved countless lives”
lol. Come on now….
@@codycast You can tell this person has never driven that route ever. LOL
@@GT1VetteIt seems that nobody from CalTrans ever drives on the roads they are responsible for.
The older I get, the more I realize that people like Rick are the real heroes of the world. Good presentation sir 👏
The downfall of a society is when everyone says, "It's not my job," and nothing ever gets done.
The real downfall comes when the government starts saying that ish lol
There’s a term for that
@@trickywoo5165 wat
@@trickywoo5165we shall never know
@@forsupernovae2401laziness maybe? Idk what else he would mean.
Funny how they cited safety concerns after he addressed their negligence.
For real. It was something he was trained to do anyway, and it not being done was far bigger of a safety issue
Yeah, I noticed that too. Makes me wonder how caltrans would have done it any safer? I mean, he even used the guardrails LOL.
Perhaps caltrans would have made it safer by shutting down the freeway to one lane for a week while the workers sat up there and drank their iced frappuccinos LOL 🤣
Yes. How ironic. Worried about safety for one man instead of safety for all those drivers crossing over multiple lanes of heavy traffic to not miss their exit. 🤦🏻♀️
Right!? Their spokesperson said that it's not safe and that Caltrans needs to do the work. But when?! They were never going to address that issue.
It's an attempt to save face, sure, but they can't go around encouraging people to improve signs themselves… Somebody might do a poor job; if the sign is not attached properly, it could fall down one day, causing an accident.
There is a gentleman in the US northeast that goes by the name Post10 on TH-cam. He travels around cleaning clogged pipes under roads, or storm drains that are blocked from draining. He films the process. He has been trained to do this and warns others in his videos not to do the same. He has likely saved hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in property damage and road repairs. Occasionally the police have stopped and asked what he is doing, and after he explains they have basically said, "Carry on". Lately he's having to work harder to find problem spots which tells me he's been doing a great job, and perhaps others are also helping as a result. It may also be that the road agencies in the states where he does his cleaning are doing a better job as well, either because they are embarrassed or they are motivated.
Posty is the man! Idiots in excavators ( and Beavers) are his nemesis. He is definitely the Richard Ankrom of Maine. His videos are strangely cathartic as well. Great comment.
That time his exploits raised awareness about a massive structural liability and potential collapse of critical infrastructure pretty much solidified his value to the authorities in his area. At this point, they know better than to obstruct him in any way.
The most impressive part about that was that he refused to use his real name when the local news interviewed him, and only identified himself as his channel name. At that point, you knew he was just in it because he genuinely cares - he doesn't want any personal recognition.
Post10 is awesome. So satisfying to watch him work.
I think he's Collected gold
@@RighteousJWhich time was this?
Richard is an amazing person and is truly making the world a better place! Accurate road signs are way more important then most people think.
We have a wooden pedestrian bridge nearby where some of the wood on the railing was damaged and for several years nothing happened. A small kid or animal could have fit through. There was also a small tree growing out of the planks already. It was a mess. I had two small brass signs engraved "This bridge is cared for by the city ...." and "We grow this tree right here on the bridge to be able to use it's timber for repairs some day." and attached them next to the tree and the damage.
It took less than two weeks and everything was repaired and the signs removed.
absolutely brilliant 😂
I love it!
That's so cool! You're awesome!
Genius! ❤
Hilarious
I never knew this and I ACTUALLY SAW THAT EXACT SIGN for years in Downtown L.A. since my grandmother's house was near USC/MLK Jr Blvd. Never thought anything "out of the ordinary" about it because, like you said, it was so convincing. Thanks for sharing this.
USC = University of South Carolina, founded in 1801, almost 50 years before California became a state.
OMG you saw that EXACT SIGN PERSONALLY?!? Did you get it's autograph?!?!
Part 2
th-cam.com/video/_WBhNA0ERX4/w-d-xo.html
I used to drive that exact route, everyday.
The sign has needed that addition for 40 years!!!
Bravo!!
This was an extremely rare case of vandalism where it was not a malicious act. It was actually kindhearted, and Richard's work saved countless lives and accidents.
We really need this guy in Seattle. The road signs up here were all installed in one evening by a drunk guy on a horse.
Lol
😂😂😂
Was the horse sober?
Unfortunately I think Boston has the greater need.
I agree. Seattle is insane th-cam.com/video/OvHMmxWwH1s/w-d-xo.htmlsi=UX9SavR3WNuWTUTP
i loved that sign. it always looked a little off, when i learned it was installed by a vandal, i thought it was amazing.
Part 2
th-cam.com/video/x2wa5ee_5iI/w-d-xo.html
@@a-dv7uyBE GONE BOT!
Yeah, I’m sure you thought it looked a little “off”, that’s why you never said anything to anyone about it until you learned it was installed by a vandal. 🤣 Give me a freaking break!
@@samueltaylor4989 if you saw the sign when it was initially up, it looked off. weirdly off center and had some odd weather damage probably related to the adhesive used to alter the sign.
@@samueltaylor4989He didn’t say anything to anyone? I didn’t know that. Impressed that you do.
he probably saved lives. I've seen countless vids of wrecks through there where people were unaware of the quick exit and caused a wreck
totally
2:31 I disagree heavily on this. The difference between driving down a road glancing at Google Maps but being able to keep my eyes on the road following proper signage is a massive difference from having to glue my eyes to my phone.
CalTrans should've hired this guy!!! He took the job he was doing just as seriously as the state agency would've. Bravo sir, thanks for helping your community
knowing the State I bet he would be cheaper....
@@danielweston9188 he could drive around in a LIMO and pay himself 1 million a year and still be cheaper than CALTRANS and get more done quicker
The fact that you think California's goverment actually gives two flying Fs. I mean he planned it for 2 years and then they said "F it, it got done" and they let it sit for 8 more years so it was well known for over 2 years before hand.
He wouldn’t have the patience to work for them.
?? why? so he becomes a useless inefficient tool like them?
Anyone who's ever driven in LA knows what a nightmare it can be. Hats off to Richard!
I live in Monterey. According to google map, it only takes me 4 hrs 45 mins to 5 hours to go see my parents. Wrong...if I don't leave Monterey before 8 AM... then I won't see my parents until 5-6pm. That is freaking crazy. Hit traffics as soon as I go over Tejon Pass. I dread driving through LA.
I hope he get lots of work from this excellent project. 5 star citizen.
I just start driving a let the unseen forces guide me
Regarding road signs - I use them. Signs direct you to the right lanes when GPS is wrong, or guide you around when you don’t use any digital guidance
I agree. Good signage is a must ❤
Yup 👍
@@teresalarson8794Tell that to Ohio.
Or confirm what your GPS is telling you,
Yes, sometimes GPS isn't accurate and you just miss your exit because it tells you too late. When the exits are so sharp or quickly coming like in this case you really need signage to help instead.
As someone born in Los Angeles in 1960, yes, CalTrans is that inefficient.
my uncle owned a paint and body shop in an industrial area. Across the street was a cannery. Cannery workers would park right infront of his shop and he could not get his gate open to let cars in or out. One day my uncle paints the curb red infront of his shop for about 15 feet in each direction. Over time he even saw cops writing tickets. One day he sees a crew from the city looking at the curb and he thinks he is busted, nope, the city crew repainted the curb with a new coat of paint.
Lol
There’s this guy in the UK who gets pissed with shop signs that omit the apostrophe. He goes round in the middle of the night painting apostrophes on these signs !! Another Hero !!
I shall become the North American counterpart who add's apostrophe's in place's they don't belong
I'll help Nathan! I'll take down the apostrophes that are there that don't belong. 😂
This guy is one of those chaotic spirits that mess with the time-line introducing Mandela effects everywhere xD
Your welcome.
If you're thinking of the Greengrocer's apostrophe (Fresh Banana's) then that's a grammatical mistake. I'd be interested to learn more.
That sign was/is one of the most time saving, mistake avoidance additions in the 50 years I’ve lived in Los Angeles. THANK YOU, RICHARD⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Yup
So is what Gary Webb did #2?
Gary Webb exposed the CIA for creating the formula to turn cocaine into crack cocaine and provided the drugs in LA so they could use the money independent from a congressional budget and enslave an entire demographic and destroy lives and their families. The CIA got a slap on the wrist and Gary was murdered.
Can he come to San Francisco and add street name signs to many corners where they’re missing? I don’t know if people take them, or if the city is just totally indifferent to labeling our streets, but it gets old driving a mile down a street and not being sure which street you’re on.
I am glad he put this info in before I start traveling to the San Diego area frequently for business. I most went north of the city to where I did my work. And cheers to a possible relative to fixing it!
That guy deserves a medal. Ironically his sign was probably much better made than the caltrans one
Right, but not every "helpful" persons work or execution is going to be to such high standards.
Well, the competition was inmates of the DOC.
At the very least, it was far less expensive.
I recently managed to escape that state. If you spend your entire life there, you never realize the degree to which public works projects in California are little more than vehicles to launder tax money into private pockets.
Supposedly they did an inspection of the sign he installed and found that it basically met the strict standards set by the state (and the federal government, because it's an Interstate), such as dimensions, visibility, font, and all kinds of nitpicky shit, and let it stay. They replaced it 8 years later because the sign panel itself was ageing, new fonts and misc signage standards over the years, etc, and they replaced the entire thing altogether. But his addition was basically formalized.
Who makes the signs for them? Do they have their own sign factory?
That's one vigilante, no cape, just a safety vest and a ladder on a California freeway
a super hero of the freewy...does he wear his underpants on the outside?
You know you've done something good when you are simultaneously both praised and reprimanded in the same breath by officials who didn't do their jobs.
Praise because they are also people, reprimanded because bureaucracy.
This wasn't vandalism, this was heroism.
Bad signage is one of those things that will have people cutting across a half-dozen lanes at the last minute, so in a way doing something about it is actually improving public safety. A lot of civil engineers and transportation planners still seem to miss this kind of thing for some unknown reason though.
Nevermind the signage, it's BAD DRIVERS who cut across a half-dozen lanes. The sign, or lack thereof, is just sitting there.
@@joeysplats3209*desparate drivers in a rush and can't afford to miss a turn they didn't know would be so soon. Yeah a bad way to drive but it could be the only act of poor driving behavior some people perpetrate and only bc there was so little warning.
@@joeysplats3209 It sets up the situation for it to occur more likely, since people panic when there isn't a good opportunity to turn around or go in the right direction for another 20 miles. The people who don't think about this when designing infrastructure are just serving drivers a crap sandwich they don't want, and it's not entirely the fault of situational awareness because no good cues are being provided in the first place.
Engineers know what to do, but Managers won't let them do it.
Often it's bureaucrats at the upper levels in the Capital who aren't familiar with local traffic. Some years ago my little somewhat touristy hometown -- on a river that flows out from an entire Great Lake, and is divided by a small river that flows into the big river -- got State bucks to enhance tourism through roadwork. For some reason the State planners insisted on turning the first (or last) street past (or before) the drawbridge over the little river into a one way coming _from_ the big river tourist attractions. Citizens who had lived in the area for years, if not their whole lives, got so confused! The farmers market is in that area, so there's a lot of traffic on those days, along with all the tourist traffic in summer. Needless to say, there's a drawbridge over the little river because of sailboats and big cruising yachts. So there you are sitting in sweltering summer heat, running the AC, using up fuel, spewing out actual pollution plus carbon, waiting for the line of boats to go past as the drawbridge is raised, all because you missed your chance to turn before you got to the drawbridge. And that's including the lifelong residents who had always taken that turn at the drawbridge. I don't know how long it took for us to get permission to change that design, but it was years, and required more tax dollars to change the signage and street layout again. What a waste! All because of bureaucrats who are unfamiliar with this town.
This kind of stuff reminds me of the channels showing people cleaning storm drains to alleviate street flooding. It may seem small, but it really does make a huge difference. Props to people that do things like that.
post10. The O.G.
Like the guy that finds lots full of bags of trash and hauls it all away to a proper dump site.
Post10 for the win
I have driven under that altered sign many times. It is very helpful. Thank you.
I’ve driven in LA a bit in those years. No doubt that sign helped this out-of-towner. Bravo
What this man did was a service to the people. He went through incredible lengths to do it right. BRAVO!!
This dude is a living hero. Completely dedicated and detailed beyond imagination. I’d hire him in a heartbeat.
Finally, a piece of graffiti that not only exquisitely performed, it was properly placed. Kudos, Richard.
8:50 does he mean Statute or is he saying there’s an actual Statue of Limitations…
Yeah no. Random. Spiral.
The lesser known sibling of the Statute of Liberty
Didn’t you see the left was taking down statues with no limitations. I wonder if the statute of limitations is closed for them.
😂
He’s from California. Who knows what he meant to say? lol
A perfect example of the adage - easier to apologize afterwards....than ask permission beforehand. Kudos for the initiative, the know-how, and gonads to pull this off.
Easier to apologize after....the statute of limitations runs out!
For the amount of potential lives this saved due to possible accidents people have when they cut across lanes to make their exit this guy is a hero and should be recognized as such by the city.
I agree with you and another poster I've scrolled past who suggested naming the exit after him. I live in a *much* different place, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area (and always laughed that the "Cincinnati" airport is in Florence, Ky). One day, the residents on a side street got notices from Rumpke that they would have to drag their garbage cans and recycle bins to a specific intersection, some as far as 3 blocks away, because the road was in such a state of disrepair that they refused to risk a 5th full size garbage truck breaking an axle and the extra cost in towing because the layout of the area meant special equipment had to be brought in to move the broken down vehicle safely. The problem lies in geography and topography. This is an excessively hilly area! And this causes both roads to snake and curve and straight lines drawn very clearly on maps to determine which of the government's pockets pays for which stretch of road to be repaired to get rather blurred when you actually go look at it in person. Basically, it was a 5 way argument and nobody wanted to be the one to pay. Everybody agreed the worked needed to be done right away; they just thought the other entities should pay for it basically. It made the 10 o'clock news when several of the neighbors got together with family members, pooled money and equipment and started paving the road themselves. The cops came by, told them to stop. There were enough of them sick and tired of it that they basically (and very colorfully) told them to go fly a kite because their families were going to have a safe road whether the city liked it or not. The City attorney served a cease and desist order. They kept working till the sun went down. The next morning, after looking bad on TV, the city had a road crew out there to finish the job and it was done in 1 day. As far as I'm aware, not a single politician involved got reelected when their term was up. What a pity 😂
Not just lives saved. Relationships as well. "It's left up here", "No honey, there isn't a sign", "It's LEFT dumb ass", "I still don't see... oh....." [screeching tyres], "Didn't I say left. Where you sleeping tonight?".
Not all heroes wear capes, but many wear hard hats.
This attitude is what made America great.
A true hero, missing an exit in a large city with medium traffic can add 20min to your travel time.
At least. As someone who has driven through big cities all over the west, these big interchanges feel likes flumes: once you are sucked into the vortex you just have to ride it down. If you are not properly placed lane wise, you have to get off, circle way back, get on again and try again. Or just find another way to the highway you were trying to get on. Either way, it can be a nightmare.
It can be even more difficult since it isn’t a standard freeway. Many of the exits there you have to drive a bit to find the way back on. There isn’t always an overpass or underpass nearby.
That's a real man. He sees a problem and fixes it himself. I salute you sir.
Not the hero we asked for, but the hero we needed.
More useful than the current administration, that's for sure !
This man proved that you cannot count on government
8:00 THIS is how our officials should be. She praised the guy then basically said "I love it, but this is the real world and we just can't allow anybody to randomly change our signs so we'll have to replace it with an official one and we hope others don't make this a trend". No grandstanding, no being an idiot. She's one of the good ones.
Actually, that's called "saving face" or just "damage control."
The only thing she did well was waving the flag after someone else completed a job that she was supposed (and paid) to do. A "good one" would have admitted the failure to put up a sign in the first place. And the fact that it took 8 years to replace that hand-made sign with an "official version" speaks volumes about how "efficient" her department is at doing their work. To be fair, they did have a good excuse to delay the replacement: that "hand made" sign looked perfect!
@@BondiAV She can't just wave her hand at have it dealt with. There's paperwork that needs to be signed and roads that need to be closed. It was a small problem in a city that is fucking massive and the would have other fish to fry. Is it inefficient? Yes but that's how things work. She was perfectly right in saying "yes this guy did a good job but we can't condone it because we have the follow city code and if people get hurt it's a problem." It worked so the city planners put it on the back burner but they did have to take care of it.
@@funnynameforme4091 What "roads that need to be closed"? One man made and installed that sign by himself, in a professional manner, without any traffic disturbance; proving that it can be done quite easily when paper pushers don't make it much more difficult than it needs to be. "if people get hurt it's a problem" but all the accidents that happened because that sign didn't exist were not a problem? Any "massive city" has a massive army of people who are in charge of such work, so that excuse does not hold water either. The saddest part of it is that they also trained you to believe that this is normal... "that's how things work" only when people fail at doing their jobs and nobody cares.
Mind you that was in 2001.
Society was more humble back then.
This man is a good citizen. I wonder how many accidents he has preventeted, and indeed how many lives he has saved.We need people like him.Stay crazy. God bless you sir.
somewhere, sombody knows the exact numbers!
Alfreosolari preventeted is my nre favourite word... thank you sir👍🤗
*new
I remember when the sign popped up. I had driven that route before and I always knew where the turn off was to get to the I-5 North, but I think it made it easier for people who were not as familiar with the freeway. There were less people trying to merge at the last minute. Good job Mr Ankrom!
This is incredible and I’m so glad he took such care and initiative. There are other signs on the LA freeways that are still super confusing. There is a part where you won’t continue going the 5 North unless you’ve don’t it before. You could go South or get off the freeway completely. It’s frustrating.
THANK YOU FOR PUBLIC SERVICE MR. ANKOM.
GIVE THAT BOY A RAISE.
Making people's lives better is never trivial. It's a public service.
The State of California should pay Ankrom for the parts and labor, plus give him the Citizen of the Year award.
The State of California is more likely to arrest him.
That’s awesome. It’s refreshing to see concerned citizens take matters into their own hands and make life a better place.
So cool of Willem DaFoe to play such an interesting local theater role
Lol. I thought he was Richard Branson as well.
I’m waiting for the movie
@charliewatts6895 Willard DaBranson!
I heard that after it was done, he retired to a lighthouse.
😂
That sign saved me so many headaches back when I drove “The 110” weekly. Thanks Richard!
Thankfully, the woman from Caltrans was good about it and no one started pushing the "illegal" aspect of this act. This guy is a sign maker and a true professional. The fact that his sign stayed up for 8 years before being replaced by an "official" sign, tells us that they inspected his work and knew that it was great. If it had been any sort of a safety concern, they would have taken it down and then they would have taken legal action. Great job and great video.
I have to give the guy credit. Being proactive is appreciated.
At least they didn't prosecute him for unauthorized road sign alteration.
I think he waited until the statute of limitations ran out for arrest. This would have been, at best, a misdemeanor which has a very low SOL threshold compared to felonies.
@@louisbouchard6869 given that he hasn't reveled his other work it seems longer.
Prosecution would have been a huge PR blunder. And 20 years ago there were still government officials that cared about that.
@@TEDodd Or maybe it was his most visible work and one done so blatantly in front of CalTrans nose compared to his other works.
@@louisbouchard6869 this was a big one. But he claims to have done others that have not been disclosed.
While CalTrans would have had a big PR black eye if they went after him back then other locations may well treat it differently.
Driven on that freeway many times. Not all heroes wear capes. Thank you, Richard.
No the hero we deserve, but the hero we need.
I'm not from California and have never used the freeway (parkway), but really, what he did is above and beyond. If the responsible people don't function, someone else needs to.
I remember when this happened. I drove this stretch nearly every day. I was so surprised that Caltrans actually fixed this, then read an article that it was actually an artist! Fantastic!
I drove ON this stretch...
He wasn't the sign painter LA deserved, but he was the sign painter they needed.
And not all heroes wear reflective vests.
This guy is the embodiment of “Fine, I’ll do it myself”
Sometimes you just have to do it!!!!!
So the original video is 10 minutes and has David Lynch-vibes. This video is 09:30 minutes and has royalty free brostep music. Why on earth am I watching this video
Because this video is infinitely more informative and concise.
because artists are crazy and their short films will make you crazy.
im serious, never watch french art movies.