Road trips are supposed to be fun, but some roads in, like the New England Highway in southeast Queensland, Australia, or the A1 just north of Tooloombah Creek Conservation Park, also in Queensland, have nothing but wild country, poisonous animals and not much else, which can lead to a long and boring journey. Unfortunately, this could lead to drivers dozing off behind the wheel, leading to crashes and fatalities. So, to keep drivers from literally crashing and burning, the government has posted some nifty looking trivia signs in “fatigue zones” to keep drivers alert as well as alive and kicking… literally!They might not look like much, but they’re actually keeping drivers from falling asleep and swerving towards serious injury or worse. To that end they start out by getting drivers to play trivia with them, which is actually pretty cool, especially if you’re in the car by yourself.
Your family is your most valuable cargo, and these signs are worth a shot at keeping you fully functional until you get to your destination. Then again, some would argue that there’s absolutely nothing throughout the long road that you could crash into, except for a trivia road sign, which would be kind of ironic in our book.
For example, the tarmac between Balladonia and Caiguna is 90 miles long and there are no turns or rest stops. It’s just a long, narrow stretch of road that never seems to end. So we’re surprised that accidents aren’t more common in this region.
Though admittedly, it would be an appropriate question during such a long and boring road, drivers will often get questions like this one, which not only helps you to think, but will educate locals with an answer that they might not have even known existed.
The question, obviously, duh! While your brain is going into overdrive trying to come up with an answer, you’ll have very little time to yawn or snooze. But don’t worry, you won’t have to wait too long for the answer. Once you’ve passed the question, you ‘ll run into another sign with the answer.
But at least you won’t have to deal with your kids or anyone else in the car asking you that annoying age-old question, “are we there yet?” Thank goodness there’s a trivia sign up ahead to keep your mind distracted on other things.
But it might be even more efficient if the Australian government invested a little extra cash on LED signs. That way, the trivia could change every so often. Even an intentional digital typo would likely make a driver laugh, giving them the boost they’d need to stay alert. Unfortunately, there aren’t any statistics to suggest that these trivia road signs actually work, but it certainly seems like a life-saving idea worth adding to other long roads in various parts of the world.
