Where have all the people gone?

Where have all the people gone?

I have been traveling from Hamilton to Auckland a lot quite recently for work, and I have noticed that no matter what time of day I travel that all of the many roadworks seem to be deserted. Now, to be fair, I do sometimes travel at odd times; a midnight return trip is not uncommon. But I have also traveled at more “reasonable” times, 2pm for example the odd 10am. And still, the roadworks remain bare. 

Where have all the people gone?

It occurs to me that this is not the only place that people seem to be disappearing from. As I drive in Auckland and along the motorways, cars seem to cut me off with great regularity. This is not usually the case if I am walking in the supermarket or down the street, so the conclusion I have come to is that people are disappearing when they get in their cars as well. No one says thank you when you let them in or gesticulate in such a manner as to indicate that they may go first, but instead the car zooms into position, claiming it as though it was their birth right.

Now, I’ve talked with people - yes, real people - and they as whole don’t seem to act the same way their cars do, at least not in polite society. So my theory is that the people are disappearing.

As previously mentioned, the road workers are also disappearing. I, at least, never see any of them. This wouldn’t usually be a problem; fewer orange vests and means fewer distracting things on your drive. But they seem to leave behind their annoying speed signs that have no bearing on the “work” being done. There is, as an example, a long section of SH1 that has been slowed to 70kmph for at least 6 months. The work done has been almost entirely off the road and for about 4 months of that the work done was entirely off the road,  but still the traffic has been slowed. In recent weeks part of the 70kmph zone has been further slowed to 50kmph, for no apparent reason.

Now this sort of thing would not normally bother me, but it has been going for so long that my estimated travel times have had to be adjusted to accommodate for the roadworks, and this is unacceptable. Where are the people doing this work? Why are they making us slow down for no reason? Why can’t I travel over the same piece of road on which I used to do 100kph over at 100kph when you have made no changes to the road for 6 months? And why must I do it at midnight when there is absolutely no chance of the non-existent workers working?

Now, to be fair, I don’t expect many, if any, of these questions to be answered, and certainly not by anyone who might hold the actual answers. But my questions remain and are added to. I was under the impression that the men in orange vests were only allowed the signs out for two reasons. Firstly if they were working, and by working I mean having one of the 23 daily meals they seem to have, and secondly if there was some actual damage to the road surface, or the surface was currently under repair.

Many, if not all, of the road works that I pass on a regular basis do not meet these criteria and yet I am still required, by law, to slow down beyond all reasonable speeds that should be, and in the past have been, allowed for the given piece of road. This, combined with people being swallowed by their cars, means that the average road user experience has now become a horrible affair.

Bring back the people.