He secretly changed this freeway sign, helped millions of drivers
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2024
- NEW VIDEO! What happened to America's colossal off-road land trains? • The unstoppable 1950s ...
Back in 2001, tired of government inaction, an artist in Los Angeles crafted and installed a perfect fake sign to fix a confusing highway interchange, helping millions of drivers before state officials caught on.
There are two things to know about the 110 freeway. It’s one of the oldest in the country, meaning it wasn’t made for today’s world. And the way other highways were built up around it in the decades since created an incredibly busy and confusing interchange in downtown LA.
One example is the connection to I-5. Despite its importance-I-5 runs from Mexico to Canada along the entire west coast-getting on it from the 110 meant spotting an abrupt single lane tucked on the left side at the end of a tunnel. The signage didn’t give nearly enough warning, and in the era before GPS, people always missed the exit.
One of those drivers was an artist named Richard Ankrom. Eventually, he decided to make his own sign for I-5 that met state and federal standards. In broad daylight, he installed his perfect fake on an existing sign two miles ahead of the exit.
It took months for state officials to catch on-but impressed with his work, they left it in place, eventually immortalizing his work when the whole sign had to be replaced.
See the short documentary Richard made about the project here → • Guerrilla Public Servi...
Produced by → / joeyrassool
Hosted by → / kylecheromcha
The Drive is the chronicle of car culture. We write stories you actually want to read. → www.thedrive.com/
FOLLOW US!
Instagram → / thedrive
Facebook → / thedrive
TikTok → / thedrive_official
X → x.com/thedrive
Threads → www.threads.net/@thedrive
WORK WITH US → youtube@thedrive.com - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
![[TH] G2 vs PRX | EDG vs FUT - VALORANT Champions 2024 DAY 4](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Bkr_qM7dIaM/mqdefault.jpg)
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
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.
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
th-cam.com/video/x2wa5ee_5iI/w-d-xo.html
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
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
th-cam.com/video/EglBGWZp67I/w-d-xo.html
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.
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.
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
th-cam.com/video/YHAxW0I_GWo/w-d-xo.html
A key to the city 🫡
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
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!!
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?
That sign saved me so many headaches back when I drove “The 110” weekly. Thanks Richard!
After getting caught in this mess once, after that my husband and I stayed hyper-aware of it (and of people who'd panic and do a southern California 'banzai' flying lane change to catch their freeway transition). When my kid came of driving age we even pointed it out to him! Pretty bad when bad signage awareness has to be passed down through the family...
Thanks so much to this unsung hero!
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.
@@kitcoffey7194 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. @@kitcoffey7194
@@kitcoffey7194if they didn’t intend to crash, then it is an “accident” even if it’s due to negligence.
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.
A true hero, missing an exit in a large city with medium traffic can add 20min to your travel time.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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?
@@user-wg2vw3mz1v 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 ;)
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.
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 appreciate you doing this story, Richard deserves the recognition, I knew about this when it came out, and I still find myself watching to completion, it is truly beautiful, this has no doubt saved countless people from road rage incidents at the very least
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.
"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.
This guy is the embodiment of “Fine, I’ll do it myself”
Thanos will be pleased.
I love people like this. Gets a great idea, implements the way to do it, and actually does it. What isn’t there to love about it.
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.
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.
As someone who was the 110 in the 1990s, I can confirm that this artist is a hero.
Can we offer a word of thanks and respect to craftsman that still know how to do "a thing" with their hands? Bravo. Nice work!
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..
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?
Someone needs to do this on I-35 southbound through Austin. The highway splits, and the right two lanes turn into an overpass, and the left two turn into an underpass.
The problem is, most people intuitively think the overpass is the way to pass through the city without exiting, but in reality, the overpass is designed for drivers to exit downtown and they have to merge back over to the left and it has created a traffic jam for decades at this point.
all you have to do is mark the overpass "exit downtown" or something
AAA Magazine says Texas is notorious for 'underposting'. So many times if you are no on the main highway (like 35) there is no sign for the street you are about to cross. You turn down the road and drive a few blocks before you can find out what street name it is. They assume everyone is using digital assistants to tel them when to turn. This of course often makes people stare at the phone instead of out the windshield.
Is that also the North south Route 59? It ends here north of Winnipeg, Victoria Beach. I hear it's one of the busiest in USA.
@@robgfmb1814 probably, I-35 is one branch of the so called "Pan-American" highway. so any traffic jams there are compounded and probably ultimately effect Mexico-Canada commerce too.
Governor of California should give the guy a medal for his service
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.
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.
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.
Richard need to be financially compensated for that great job
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.
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?
Richard Branson thought he could get away with vandalism by changing his last name to Ankrom and faking an American accent but he’s not fooling anyone 🤣.
Oh my gosh, I remember when it was only one lane to get to the 5 and I would always miss it. I was so happy to see the sign but had no idea that he did it. Thank you Richard!
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.
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
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.
I almost wrecked here a couple of times when I was young. Had no idea this was how it got fixed, thanks for sharing!
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?
So I owe this man for making the path to my grandma safer. Good to know
I remember that story and I've told many people about it in the last 20 years or so... Thanks for making this video!
I never seen a sign-signing act/doc sound as if he's going to haunt the world! LOL
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 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.
The man is quite frankly a legend in his own right for doing this. Who the heck takes it upon themselves to personally update a sign? And to put all that work into it too that no one seems to notice it wasn’t mandated by the company! Huge respect! I wish him lots of success!
I have been sign designer and carver , in Quebec, for more than 30 years. I salute the professional work of this man, and his obvious utility.Now, because pandemia, i am truck driver, so road sign are necessary. Bravo!
I used to drive that exact route, everyday.
The sign has needed that addition for 40 years!!!
Bravo!!
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 can't get enough of your content, it's that good!
thank you for taking the time to make a thorough documentation of this project ❤
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?
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?
Give this man a "best artist" award for helping the public/society
What he did was a public service. I have travel this route thousands of time and seen my share of drivers trying not to miss the off-ramp resulting in near accidents. Thank you for doing this, it was brilliant!
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 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?
A true American hero, using his own ingenuity to help other Americans.
My YT recommendations are on fire today. It's not that this video is especially good, but it's that it's consistently in a good groove.
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
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.
I love this story. I’m from LA. I probably found this useful at some point. I also use that 110 short off ramp all the time when I visit my mom.
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.
A 9:30 video about a 10 minute documentary? What a time to be alive.
Do you have ANY idea how much time that will save us!?
30 seconds.
the doc is an art film and not everyone’s cup of tea. we linked it in the description for those who want to check it out
Thankfully, we can zip through the video and get to the ten seconds of content.
@@drive im glad you made it, was a good video worth watching. But you have to admit that comment was pretty dang funny. Caught me off guard.
Thank you for this comment... made me chuckle! ✌
3:42 i just love how he changes the angle so we don't get a better idea of what he's talking about
I had to rewind that part like 4 times. I thought I was trippin.
Yea, if he kept the angle you would see the two signs added in 2009 that make the exit much more obvious. Something he failed to mention when he said CalTrans replaced the sign in 2009.
We need a guy like this in every big city, but especially in Pittsburgh
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,
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
Highway signage is very important and very shoddy in this country. Way to go, Richard, and THANK YOU 🏆👏
This man color matched the signs.
We’ll if you think about it. His art has a bigger impact than a lot of other artist.
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.
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.
Well done bro........
One of the beat videos I have ever taken the time to view......
Respect.....
One x
He was an artist. Artists are weird by definition.
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.
Finally, a piece of graffiti that not only exquisitely performed, it was properly placed. Kudos, Richard.
Maybe this will inspire others to fix it if the city can’t/won’t. Thanks for this fun and interesting video.
His labor was definitely worth the time, given how many auto accidents he avoided.
Ironic that the Caltran employee mentioned safety issues
Indeed. His passion project was likely 10 times safer than the government standards.
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?".
The man did a great job, he is true public servant. He saved a lot of people from a car crash who otherwise would stop in the middle of the freeway not to miss the exit.
Remember, a bad driver never misses their exit.
"... but in the Y2K era, people _relied_ on road signs."
That made me feel old.
I mean you still do. You still need to see "Use the right two lanes to follow signs for Exit 6B. Interstate 53 towards X"
Don't worry, I'm 20 and I navigate only by signs and memory. If I don't know where I should be going, I look it up at home and remember the route. If I forget, I quickly refresh my memory at a red light. My car has satnav, and I haven't even bothered to figure out how to use it.
Mercury dimes make me feel old, but I sure do wish I'd hung onto mine when I was a kid.
Same here! 😳
We still do lol
This is the type of man that deserves free beers for life.
Not the best choice of reward for something related to driving 😅
@@Requiem100500 xD as long as he doesn't do that right after of course
If I ever see him at a bar, I am ordering him 1 million beers
he doesn't drink alcohol
Stumbled on this and watched it. It's cool that something - that would otherwise be labelled as vandalism - turned out to have a positive impact for so many drivers. Who knew. Thanks for posting.
Thank you for making the world a better place.
What this man did was a service to the people. He went through incredible lengths to do it right. BRAVO!!
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?
That's art, respects to the guy
This is one of the coolest stories I've seen in months. Thumbs up!
I have driven under that altered sign many times. It is very helpful. Thank you.
He wasn't the sign painter LA deserved, but he was the sign painter they needed.
And not all heroes wear reflective vests.