If you can read this, I can't see you

The other day as I was riding my bike home, I passed the truck loading area on Comstock which was laden with trucks loading and unloading their stock. I'm not going to lie, it was a little frightening (but maybe that's because I am pretty chicken about most things), so I made sure to slow down, check the road for oncoming traffic before crossing into the next lane, made eye contact with the driver who had just popped into the driver's seat and cautiously made my way past him. As I continued on my way home I thought of the "If you can read this you're too close" bumper stickers. It made me think about how redundant the copy on the sticker actually is. You figure, if you are reading it you simply are too close for your own safety but the time it might take you to read the sticker, you could've already been hit.

Essentially, the person whose life that sticker intends to save, is now required to take the time to read the obvious, that you are reading the sticker. Why not just get to the point? I don't really need to know that I'm reading something, but I do need to know I'm too close for my own good. The fact of the matter is, the truck is so large that there are blatant blind spots within which the driver simply cannot see. This means that for one's own safety, one should always keep a great enough distance. The problem is, this might often be forgotten or simply unknown and a bumper sticker like this has the potential to save a few lives, if only it was designed more efficiently.

I say get rid of the old "if you can read this..." and get to the point: You're way too close you idiot! In all seriousness, I've redesigned the sticker just for fun.

On another note, while searching for images of the original stickers I came across an article, "Transperant Truck System Could Save Lives" which was originally posted by Gizmodo and Engadget. It's absolutely genius in its simplicity and practicality. It's unfortunate that the technology is apparently too costly to put into effect on all large trucks. The system called Transparentius, designed by Russian design studio, Art Lebedev, is simply a camera in the front of the truck that projects what is ahead on the screens built-into the rear doors of the truck. This way, driver's behind the truck would be able to safely pass or switch lanes.

It's funny how the technology is supposedly too expensive to actually implement yet if the screens were to be used for advertising they'd already be in place. They can spend the money downtown for some LCD billboards or LCD screens anywhere else you go, like in malls, or even the theatre yet saving lives seem to come last on the priority list and isn't worth the investment. It's just too bad there aren't more people dedicated to bettering or even saving the lives of others than making money.