The system is muttonheaded

We go about day to day doing the same routine without truly thinking about the people that make the decisions on how we can better stabilize the system.  I suppose the first thought that crosses our mind in a poor economy is "How do we cut costs to save?", but I would like to think that they actually take more time to consider adding onto that question.  Maybe the question should have been rephrased as "How do we cut costs to save and make it so our people can still do their routine undisturbed?"

As you can see, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles here in California, all offices will be closed on Fridays in October except for the 29th.  Who knows just when they will decide to close on that day.  And some of you know they've stopped having offices open on Saturdays.  So what's the big problem?  Well, if they wanted to cut costs by shortening the number of business days the offices would be open, wouldn't it have made more sense to have offices open on a Saturday and have them closed during the beginning or middle of the week (e.g., Monday or Wednesday)?

Do they not understand that having offices closed permanently on Saturday and then having them temporarily closed on certain Fridays inconveniences many working adults or full-time students?   Go after work?  Well sorry but the majority of working people and students do 8-to-5 and the DMV offices just happen to close at 5:00 pm.  Do it online?  Yes, that's what the mail says to do, but there are still instances when instructions require the individual to be at an office in person such as for new photo, fingerprints, and/or vision test.  We the people shouldn't have to work our schedule to be a convenience to a service that our tax money go to.

And a second thing.  What is with those freeway electronic warning signs?  Do they really help?  I understand that they can be useful in determining the amount of time necessary to arrive at a certain junction but should they really be used for other purposes like relaying long  messages?  A short message such as the one on the left is fine.  The sign has enough lines to display the necessary information.  The information was also concise.

The 10 Freeway.  It could have been a fine smooth traffic condition this morning but traffic was much more dense than usual.  Especially on a Friday.  You would think people don't want to go to work on Fridays and that traffic would be lighter than the rest of the week.  Not today however.  People were so eager to go to work on this last business day before the weekend that the 10 Interstate heading West was actually crowded.  What's the deal?  Turns out one of these electronic warning signs was displaying a certain message:

Child Abduction
Silver Dodge Van
Dented Front Right Door


What made it terrible was that they displayed one line on the screen at a time.  This meant curious drivers had to wait for the screen to refresh to the next line.  It was more something like this:

Child Abduction


[screen refresh]

Silver Dodge Van


[screen refresh]

Dented Front Right Door

Really.  Couldn't use the entire space for more efficiency?  Could they not play this on the radio?  Could they not have it played on some AM station?  What are the chances of people actually spotting this specific vehicle and actually having the time to report it?  People were more busy slowing down to read this emergency than paying attention to what's ahead of them.  Literally, traffic went from 25 mph to 60 and above as soon as drivers finished reading this message.  How can the people behind the message actually expect drivers to report an incident if they do in fact spot the vehicle?   How many good samaritans are there?  And don't they remember that it is now illegal to place a call or text message while driving unless we have some form of headset?  Even still, we would still have to dial the number and that would've been mistaken as texting by some passerby law enforcement individual.  Isn't dialing, speaking with the operating, reporting the incident, figuring out where you actually are, and following the vehicle before help arrives more distracting ?   Because you know that that is exactly what a person would do [instinctively] if they actually did spot the vehicle. Is the system this muttonheaded?

If you put the time to think about this situation, in the real world, people are more concerned about their time and their own self-business than to worry about someone else's abducted child.  Even physicians and nurses have their own schedules to deal with.  How many people can truly consider themselves good samaritans?   People are more likely to care about their drive to work because of a brush fire or truck collision than someone's inability to watch their own child.  These warning signs shouldn't be used to persuade us to contribute to the system where our tax money is supposed to [already] go to a service (law enforcement) that is meant to deal with these kinds of situations.  Come on!  We need brighter people and more efficient planners taking care of this place.


Edit:  So a reader says that sign actually saved a child from abduction last week.  Also, the amber alert is great stuff.  Still, I think a radio alert is better than having people slow down to read a warning message that refreshes the screen just to show the next line.  They give warnings about traffic collisions on the major radio stations, so why not warnings of child abduction too?  Maybe they do but definitely not as much as they should.