Crying Wolf

We are often reminded on TV that we must obey the road works signs in particular the reduced speed limits. And now police cars are being stationed along side road works to reinforce the message, what a waste of police resources. Despite all this effort most people still don't slow down until they see the police car. So what's going on? The TV ads stress that the reduced speed limits are there to protect the road workers, does this mean the public doesn't care about the road workers? No, I believe the road workers don't care about road workers. Most people don't reduce speed when they encounter these road work signs simply because a) they place them too far ahead of the road works, b) so often there are no road works, they've just left the signs up.
If road workers care about their safety they should be vigilant about covering up the signs when they are not actually working.It's called crying wolf.
The Bruce highway on the Sunshine Coast has been in a state of disrepair for years yet the speed limit remained 110kph except for one particularly bad section where it was reduced to 100 khp (as if that would make any difference). The recently the road was resurfaced, yet for weeks the speed limit was reduced to 80 khp, why, because the lane marking wasn't finished (there were those temporary plastic lane markers). The road was finally safer than it had been for years yet the speed limit was reduced. These illogical rules and behaviours are why drivers ignore speed limits.
This will change when I'm Emperor.