‘Cross the Street, Then Update Facebook’: Snarky Road Signs in CA

Drivers in Hayward, California are apparently ignoring posted street signs. So the city is getting “snarky.”

According to CBS San Francisco’s KPIX5, Hayward drivers are speeding right past a particular 30 m.p.h. speed limit sign at the top of a hill across the street from Cal State University, East Bay.

To combat the problem, the city is taking action by putting up new signs that the station describes as “snarky.”

One sign looks like a traditional speed limit marker, but instead reads, “It’s a speed limit. Not a suggestion.”

Another reminds students not to fiddle with their phones in the middle of crosswalks: “Heads Up! Cross the street. Then update Facebook.”

Hayward public information officer Frank Holland, who wrote the new signs, told CBS the intention is to catch drivers’ and pedestrians’ eyes, even if the jokes printed on them are not so funny.

“You have to break through into people’s consciousness,” Holland told CBS. “And hopefully break through the people where they go, ‘Oh, that’s interesting. Maybe I should listen to that. Maybe I should pay attention.'”

“I’m the guy that everybody can point at and say, ‘God, those are horrible,'” Holland added. “But you know what? If they say they’re horrible, thats okay because they’re still talking about the message and hopefully slowing down.”

While the signs are certainly different, one Hayward resident said there could be a minor problem with them.

“I think it’s got a shelf life,” Kevin Dankwardt told CBS. “They’re gonna have to keep coming up with new ones.”