Watch Out for Speed Traps, Even Without the Hair Dryer

In Poland, a sign marking a built-up area on a straight road through a forest may be a warning that a police speed trap is nearby, Robert Gwiazdowski writes. He calls the country’s road signs traps for drivers, using “the bear with the hair dryer” as shorthand for an officer holding a radar gun.

His criticism focuses first on the sheer number of signs. Too many signs distract drivers, he says, citing research on how the brain perceives its surroundings. He argues that the problem affects public-transport drivers as well as motorists.

Gwiazdowski also points to speed limits he considers inconsistent or unreasonable. On a 1.6-kilometer stretch of a regional road, he counts six signs covering built-up areas, speed limits and the ends of restrictions. Depending on the point, drivers may be allowed to travel at 50, 70 or 90 kilometers per hour, even though the density of buildings along the road remains the same.

He describes one sequence in which a 70-kilometer-per-hour limit begins 100 meters after a built-up-area sign, lasts 250 meters and then ends. Three hundred meters later, another sign lowers the limit to 50. After leaving the S8 motorway, where the eastern route allows speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour, a 70-kilometer-per-hour limit appears, followed by a speed camera. Beyond the intersection, the limit falls to 50, where another police radar trap waits.

He says such arrangements train drivers to ignore signs, including in places where restrictions make sense. He gives another example near a village shop where a turn that residents had used for years was replaced by a sign ordering drivers to continue straight, rather than a direct no-turn sign. For Gwiazdowski, the issue is not defending reckless drivers, but making road rules clear enough to be respected.