Direct me to the nearest shelter
I am concerned by the increasing number of homeless living on our streets without warmth, food or shelter. Unfortunately as most homeless people are not going to vote (no house to register from for example) most politicians don’t care if they freeze. Similarly most people would rather ignore the Big Issue sellers and begger’s shouts for spare change than try to do something about the problem. Well I have the solution.
This idea came to me as I was wondering down the bleak and far too busy Oxford “clone” street in London. As I was very slowly making my way past crowds of consumerists, I noticed these fellows holding up signs pointing to the back street sandwich shops, ski sales and closing down sales. According to the Guardian these are the so called “board guys”, who kindly direct people to the “hidden” bargains in discreet out of the way shops, or to the nearest McDonald’s just in case you miss that big red and yellow arch. This is the way shops bypass planning rules which demand that any permanent sign must be cleared by the local council. By having movable and transient signs, shops can have the flexibility to advertise when they need it, for example during sales. We need to apply this great idea to the homeless.
I think that this could also be applied to lots of other types of signs. Roadworks- get a homeless person to hold the sign. You’re having an event that day- pay a homeless person to do it. If it goes on for a couple of days, they can sleep underneath it. In fact I can see this being applied to lots of signs.
The RAC has complained that people are being confused on the roads by too many signs. Why not reduce that by using homeless people. For example, a school sign only needs to be up during school hours. During the night it could be taken down, the flexible Homeless board guys can do this for you.
If you think this is ridiculous in any way, you should see old Kinnock’s new plan to replace every miles sign with kilometres in time for the Olympics in 2020. Perhaps the homeless could hold these new signs up.
June 13th, 2006 at 9:06 pm
[...] It looks like the Government is clamping down on those great servants of the community who (for below minimum wage) direct us from Oxford Street to the nearest Gold sales and language courses. Vox Polis thinks we need to do the opposite and expand the scheme to traffic signs across the country as we wrote here. Think of the employment opportunities it provides! [...]