And now for something completely different

Its been a very busy week, thus my limited posts (and mostly useless News additions) - I've also been toying around with a restructure of this site; but that's neither here nor there. So last week I got a ticket; not a big deal really. Today is the court date, unless I go to the courthouse down the street and pay the fine. I am considering contesting the ticket all based on some universal principles of design, and I'm preparing my case. The universal design principal of consistency states:

"...systems are more usable and learnable when similar parts are expressed in similar ways. Consistency enable people to effeciently transfer knowledge to new context, learn new things quickly, and focus attention on the relevant aspects of a task" "Aethetic consistency refers to the consistency of style and sppearance."

Here is a picture of the speed limit sign in question. First notice its location. In front of a store. Among chairs, mailboxes and other products (which would change year round). Next to on-street parking (which could obscure being able to view the sign). Notice the signs height relative to the things around it. The sign is right after a 4-way stop intersection. Its our duty to find speed limit signs, for sure, but we've also been "trained" see signs in a certain location - a certain height and a certain visible range. This meets none of the consistency factors that drivers have become trained to see. If you are visiting a new town, passing through, the consistency of signage is the one unifying factor of all areas, thus allowing us to adhere follow the rule of law for the road. If there was no consistency then our eyes would no longer be on the road but darting around looking for signs. When a sign falls out of the consitent predictablity of signage its overlooked. So my case : the only speed limit I saw that day wsa the 40mph sign about 500 yards down the road because the sign was to adhere to was neither clear nor easy to find. I'll never present any of this -- I'll just go to the courthouse, fork over the fine and take the hit on the insurance. BUT my inner "LA Law" wants to make a grandstanding case to this small time town. Plus it would be ?ber cool to use my design knowledge to get out of a speeding ticket.