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Comment by thepasswordis | Hacker News Reader

these are not the ONLY signs. They’re signs that usually are used for showing construction or travel times or burn bans or other weird things the government wants to convey.

“Immigrants” aren’t stupid, and despite what some might think, do have the full ability to engage in normal human behaviors like humor.

Edit: I think some of you are confused about this story. This has nothing to do with the normal road signs that are meant to be used for navigation etc. These are things which are usually blank, and sometimes turned on for information about road construction or things like that: https://www.kbtx.com/2024/01/17/no-joke-feds-are-banning-fun...

Some people in the DOT realized they could put something kind of funny on them to encourage people to do stuff like wear their seatbelts, or not speed, or put messages discouraging drunk driving.

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The person you’re responding to is talking specifically about the 'funny' signs, not the "signs that usually are used for showing construction or travel times or burn bans or other weird things the government wants to convey."

> “Immigrants” aren’t stupid, and despite what some might think, do have the full ability to engage in normal human behaviors like humor.

Nobody's saying they're stupid or don’t have a sense of humor, just that they may not have the cultural prerequisites to immediately understand certain jokes. Especially in a medium that is terrible for telling jokes.

Those signs are the same signs. They’re digital signs above the freeway. Sometimes they say travel times and info about burn bans, other times they have silly puns about not drinking and driving, or not passing on the left.

I don’t think the implication was that immigrants are stupid or unable to engage in humor, but rather that English might not be their native language and that they may not be as familiar with pop culture references.

The implication is that someone not versed in the language may only get the first part of the message, or the word “left” and move over to the left - exactly the opposite of what they want.

Traffic signs have a very short time to be seen and recognized; you want every aspect of it including partial readings to be as correct as you can.

> do have the full ability to engage in normal human behaviors like humor.

Sure, nobody is saying they are here. What we are saying is that it can be likely that it would take someone who is ESL more time to parse humor or a joke, or the elderly, or even those with English as a first language. That time is best _not_ spent while you're operating a multi thousand pound weapon down a highway at 70MPH, where reaction times are a must and this is distracting.

Hey if you’re going to push to ban billboard, or writing on the sides of semi trucks, or giant signs on the buildings near freeways you absolutely have my support.

Absolutely, frankly. One step at a time, this is a win, and where I live advertising billboards _are_ banned. There's only one in the entire city, and it was grandfathered in.

I am immigrant, and I like "stupid" simple messages. Renting car, driving car in strange environment, dealing with speed limits, road signs in foreign language, new weather like snow... It is all already pretty stressful.

I really do not care about your stupid local humor while driving. I do not follow TV or pop music. I do not get the "references". The same way you would not get Chinese humour.

> "To the left, to the left / Passing only in the lane to the left."

I would probably read only the first part, and assume right lane is closed. Or even worse, I would be like "oh shit they drive like in UK"!!!!

Well the good news is that all of the normal signs that tell you stuff like that are still there, and these humorous messages on the digital signs above the freeway have absolutely nothing to do with those.

So if digital board says something like "icy road" or "collision ahead" I should just ignore that as "humorous" message? It should provide real time useful information, not some BS advertising!

Imigrants are not stupid, people who listen to Beyonce are!

Doesn’t this basically conclude with “don’t let immigrants drive at all”?

If you can’t parse the difference between “collision ahead” and “use yah blinkah”, then you shouldn’t be driving at all.

“Immigrants” are not uniquely unable to parse these things.

Do you know anything about usability? And relative cultural meanings?

About 1.5 billion people drive on left (India, UK, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia....). Road sign "to the left" has VERY important meaning for big part of globe. Some people travel a lot and change left/right driving a few times every month..

But perhaps Beyonce songs and American pop culture, should be part of driving exams globally! So everyone can parse your "funny" jokes.

These signs are above the freeway. There is no way to drive on the wrong side of the freeway once you are already on it.

The people writing these messages are part of the DOT. Not surprisingly they already think of this stuff. They’re not stupid.

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