Here a traffic cone is repurposed into a cover for a New York City
lightpost. The traffic cone is electrical taped over a small opening
at the base of the lightpost that allows technicians access to wiring.
There is a metal plate that is usually bolted over the space in
(functioning) streetlamps, and blends in so well with the rest of the
lamp that the presence of a cover (or the space it is concealing) is
almost impossible to recognize. From seeing the streetlamps that are
lacking these covers, it appears they serve two purposes. The first
is, more obviously, protecting the inner workings of the lamp from the
elements.
The second is more interesting: the traffic protects the lamp from
people who would deposit trash into it. This behavior is interesting
in its compromise - while it is not placing trash into the optimal
receptacle, it is still keeping us from throwing it on to the street
(to be avoided at all costs, at the risk of being branded a litterbug
or worse). Next time you walk down the street, look around places
where there is pedestrian traffic but no "sanctioned" place to put
trash. Besides finding trash on the ground, it is likely you'll also
find trash stuffed into any nearby crevice or thrown down any
convenient hole (or into an adjacent body of water). Cigarette
packets stuffed into crumbling mortar between bricks, glass bottles
wedged into the base of tree branches, plastic shopping bags suspended
between the spaces of a chain link fence, etc.
This "rubbish stuffing" behavior is prevalent not just in cultures
with a more keenly developed "eco-consciousness" but also in less
developed cultures lacking comparable standards for street
cleanliness. Ironically, those in societies that have been
continually bombarded with the message to not throw trash on the
ground and adopt the behavior of putting it "anywhere but the ground"
approach can make removing the trash more challenging in the future.
Why? Although New York City employs a veritable army of trucks and
roving personnel to sweep streets and empty sanctioned waste
receptacles on a scheduled basis, garbage off of ground level is
outside the official responsibility and (barring an extra-dedicated
municipal sanitation employee) will remain until weather or a good
samaritan removes it. The "Adopt-a-Road/Highway" program comes at this
at an interesting angle - though the KKK and Kramer can always cause
the best of good intentions to go awry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adopt_a_Highway
