Roadside Memorials - Like um/Hate um

**Searay215** · August-19-10, 10:56 AM

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7...2127--,00.html

Caught this on WWJ radio the other day and was wondering what others thought of roadside memorials. Personally I hate them, I understand the grieving families, but do you really want to remember the last terrifying seconds of your love ones life or would you prefer to remember the wonderful alive person they were.

Now the DNRE is going to remove them as their claim and I agree with them is a distraction to drivers, nor do I want to see where someone lost their life. If you were to put a memorial everywhere a person died, you'd see one ever few feet.
Just would like to know what others think about this.....

**firstandten** · August-19-10, 11:00 AM

I get that .. but what about the memorials on I-96 in the city for the two officers state troopers [[I believe) that got killed as a result of traffic stops.

**jcole** · August-19-10, 11:01 AM

What I hate most about them is the piles of moldering stuffed animals and dead flowers that you just know are harboring every kind of vermin available.
Who wants to remember their loved one with rats crawling in and out of wet cotton batten?

**Johnlodge** · August-19-10, 11:10 AM

When I was out west this summer, I noticed some states put small white crosses or small signs on the road where casualties occurred as a reminder to drive safely, and as a memorial. In some instances, I believe the state put them up, in other states I think it said an organization such as the Foreign Legion or such put them up. I think these are preferable to the ad-hoc soggy stuffed animal version.

**Johnlodge** · August-19-10, 11:13 AM

Montana:
http://www.mtlegion.org/programs/Marker.php

South Dakota: [[croll down to number 3)
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/rant/descansos.html

These were the ones I noticed.

**Maof** · August-19-10, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by jcole

What I hate most about them is the piles of moldering stuffed animals and dead flowers that you just know are harboring every kind of vermin available.
Who wants to remember their loved one with rats crawling in and out of wet cotton batten?

i agree jcole.

**Meddle** · August-19-10, 12:23 PM

I don't really care as long as they're off the right-of-way and are not a distraction to traffic.

Other than that, I really don't see the point. It's all a bit silly to me.

**Papasito** · August-19-10, 12:28 PM

I noticed some states put small white crosses or small signs on the road where casualties occurred as a reminder to drive safely, and as a memorial. In some instances, I believe the state put them up, in other states I think it said an organization such as the Foreign Legion or such put them up. I think these are preferable to the ad-hoc soggy stuffed animal version

Right on, JL.
I don't see a reasonably sized and well placed clean,
tasteful road side memorial as a reminder to drive safely as an annoyance.

**Jimaz** · August-19-10, 12:47 PM

From Wikipedia:

The origin of roadside crosses in the United States has its roots with the early Hispanic settlers of the Southwestern United States, and are common in areas with large Hispanic populations. Formerly, in funerary processions where a group would process from a church to a graveyard carrying a coffin, the bearers would take a rest, or "descanso" in Spanish, and wherever they set the coffin down, a cross would be placed there in memory of the event. The modern practice of roadside shrines commemorate the last place a person was alive before being killed in a car crash, even if they should die in the hospital after the crash....

Apart from their personal significance, these memorials serve as a warning to other road users, as a general reminder of the dangers of driving, and by extension to encourage safer driving. In the 1940s and '50s the Arizona State Highway Patrol began using white crosses to mark the site of fatal car accidents. This practice was continued by families of road-crash victims after it had been abandoned by the police. The ghost bike phenomenon, where an old bicycle is painted white and locked up at an accident site, serves the same purpose in relation to cycling casualties.

The messy ones obviously need to be cleaned up eventually but I kind of like the idea of warning people of a dangerous stretch of road. I can take 'em or leave 'em.

LodgeDodger · August-19-10, 02:04 PM

I don't care for the roadside memorials. That's why there are cemetery headstones.

**Meddle** · August-19-10, 02:27 PM

OP, when you posted this, did you know that these have been ruled unconstitutional in Utah and ordered removed?

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50...uling.html.csp

**Gistok** · August-19-10, 02:29 PM

I do think that those freeway roadsigns serve one useful purpose... often when they keep appearing in the same spot... it just shows how clueless that MDOT or even local municipalities can be in managing freeway and roadway safety problems.

One prime example is in the Grosse Pointes.... ever wonder what wonderful blind spots all that beautiful landscaping in the medians of boulevards [[Mack Ave. and Lakeshore Dr.) make there?

I once hit a bicyclist with my car when trying to access Lakeshore from Moran... I stopped at the stop sign [[witnesses confirmed that), but since you could not see around the huge berm of Grosse Pointe Academy's front lawn, a bicyclist whizzed past on the sidewalk as I was entering the intersection.

Luckily the cyclist landed on my hood and I braked at the grassy island and she ended up with only 2 minor bruises and a busted bicycle. A passing pedestrian with a stroller was bitching at the officer on the scene that this same incident happened the previous week with a jogger, and that they needed to do something about that blind spot.

Well it took 2 more years and countless other injuries there before the GP "Public Safety" finally got a clue and forced the Academy to shave off the top several feet of their berm so that pedestrians, cyclists and drivers could see each other.

Mack Ave. in the GP Farms is especially notorious for blind spots where overgrown vegetation blocks the views of folks trying to cross Mack.

I think that in many [[not all) instances... such as the Vernier [[8 Mile) on-ramp to eastbound I-94... these crosses and memorials often show areas that are prone to accidents. And in the case of the I-94 problem area where it curves into St. Clair Shores.... I avoid the right lane near Vernier like-the-plague!!

**Zacha341** · August-19-10, 11:16 PM

I hear you... The stuffed animals, deflated balloons and other doo-dads does get pretty grim once a winter or two passes. And no one takes it down once it get's that way... but I can understand the sentiment -- especially the ones that mark where teens have been shot on the west and east sides of the city.

Originally Posted by Johnlodge

When I was out west this summer, I noticed some states put small white crosses or small signs on the road where casualties occurred as a reminder to drive safely, and as a memorial. In some instances, I believe the state put them up, in other states I think it said an organization such as the Foreign Legion or such put them up. I think these are preferable to the ad-hoc soggy stuffed animal version.

**wolverine** · August-20-10, 03:43 AM

Originally Posted by Searay215

Personally I hate them, I understand the grieving families, but do you really want to remember the last terrifying seconds of your love ones life or would you prefer to remember the wonderful alive person they were.

That's a really great point. The memorials also look extremely depressing after awhile. Their appearance doesn't have any dignity like a gravesite.

Maybe a solution to keep everyone happy would be a memorial plaque at some public roadside location in every county. Families don't have to drive far to see it, and names can easily be added.

**Zacha341** · August-20-10, 05:44 AM

Great idea so long as the plaque is plastic otherwise the 'scrappers' will remove any metal memorabilia as we see across the town.

Originally Posted by wolverine

That's a really great point. The memorials also look extremely depressing after awhile. Their appearance doesn't have any dignity like a gravesite.

Maybe a solution to keep everyone happy would be a memorial plaque at some public roadside location in every county. Families don't have to drive far to see it, and names can easily be added.

**GOAT** · August-20-10, 12:34 PM

This has been covered on this site already. But I hate them. There is a reason we have cemetaries. So please for those grieving a loved one please set up your shrine in the cemetary...if they allow you and quit littering and reminding us of what transpired.

Thanks.

**Papasito** · August-20-10, 01:13 PM

EW, Fail

YES! Win.

**Django** · November-13-10, 09:35 AM

Ghost Bikes, anyone seen any in Detroit yet?

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title.../?ncid=webmail

Takes a sec for the video to play after the short ad.

I like it.

**Zacha341** · November-14-10, 04:49 AM

LOL! After a while those stuffed bear things get pretty rank... or 'Epic Fail' as the they say......

Originally Posted by Papasito

EW, Fail

YES! Win.

**Magnatomicflux** · November-14-10, 05:45 AM

Originally Posted by jcole

What I hate most about them is the piles of moldering stuffed animals and dead flowers that you just know are harboring every kind of vermin available.
Who wants to remember their loved one with rats crawling in and out of wet cotton batten?

I agree. At first the stuffed animals make me feel horrible for the family, but then as time goes on, it's almost like watching the poor soul decompose right in front of everyone right there on the corner.
I totally understand the need for people to do this, but after a little bit they just need to come down.

**Whitehouse** · November-14-10, 02:25 PM

|The application ofd roadside memorials is recent development in the Netherlands. Ten years ago you never saw them, apart from a crucifix sometimes on a, most of the time, damaged tree. There has been a lot of discussion on what is acceptable over here. Some mementos look like spontanious places of remebrance. There are spots where the places are kept maintained by relatives. And sometimes even a permanent marker is allowed to stay.

In any case, endangering the traffic is not permitted and there are cases where the monument is hidden from view.