The mornings are getting much darker now and the evenings close in a little earlier too. Thinking about this reminded me of a little unplanned geek experiment I did when I lived in Tyne St, Roslyn (well, Roslyn if you’re selling, anyway) in the 1990s.
Six months later, on the longest day, I remember getting a taxi home after the evening reporting shift about 10.30pm. I noticed it was still just light enough to read the junk mail from the letter box and that the sun set way, way to the left (southwest) at the end of Kaikorai Valley. What a difference.
I’ve found this great website — https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/new-zealand — which clearly shows how the day length is changing, by a bit more than three minutes a day at the moment, and the compass position at which the sun is rising and setting. I was particularly taken by the fact that the latest sunsets in Dunedin were not at the same time as the longest day. They actually occurred at the start of January, but were more than offset by later sunrises.
An agave achieves peak grandeur in east Otago. This 16-year-old succulent, flowering on Isabel McInnes’ Palmerston property after a growth spurt late last year, is about 6m tall. Photo: Bill Campbell
Census information
I’ve had half a dozen or so calls in recent days from readers, either confused by what they need to do about the online census or explaining what they have been told.
"Not everyone has a computer," was the view of a couple of you. One caller was also worried that, with an online census, the legal requirement to fill in the form was weakened by shifting the onus on replying to the form-filler.
"Much better when they come to your street, knocking on doors," Bill said.
However, another reader got in touch to say she had asked and apparently everyone will get a letter in the mail with their special code on it.
"When you get that, it will tell you what to do to get a paper form," she said.
Here’s hoping.
The video screen on the Andersons Bay Rd overbridge, which has caused consternation for some. Others wonder what the fuss is about. Photo: John Fridd
Andersons Bay overbridge
Oh yes, back to this. Had a letter from Brett Harries, the managing director of Traffic Design Group Ltd in Auckland.
He says while this is the first digital billboard to be established in Dunedin, they are not new to New Zealand, with more than 50 in place now. Overseas they are even more common.It is easy to jump to the conclusion that, as they are designed and placed to be noticed, they must be "dangerously distractive to drivers".
However, international research, mostly from Australia, and experience from monitoring the billboards here shows that perception is unfounded, he says.
"Digital billboards in New Zealand are strictly controlled. Each image shown must be static while it is displayed; the images must remain for a minimum period of time; the transitions from one image to the next must be carefully controlled, and the brightness of the screens must be controlled and responsive to ambient lighting conditions.
"With these controls in place, a digital billboard becomes similar to any other sign, except they are easier to see in all light conditions.
"Overseas research is showing motorists quickly get used to their presence as just another part of the visual environment that exists outside a vehicle and which already includes other potential sources of driver inattention, such as people, scenery, other traffic and so on."
Brett says the New Zealand Transport Agency’s database of vehicle crashes — which specifically asks if signs are a cause — shows no crashes have been attributed to digital signs in the six years they have been operating here. There are two reasons for this.
"Firstly, while drivers may notice and look at a digital sign, they will not usually gaze at it long enough for that sign to become a hazardous distraction. Studies show that average gaze durations are less than half that required to cause a measurable adverse road safety effect.
"Secondly, when driving in busy or complex traffic situations, drivers will tend to focus on what is important to the driving task and will ‘shut out’ things that are not immediately necessary to concentrate on, such as advertising signs (regardless of how prominent they might be).
"When a driver is confronted with a digital billboard in the view ahead for the first time, it is easy to presume that it must be distractive and hence a road safety problem. However, the reality is that such signs can, and do, sit compatibly within the traffic environment, without causing traffic chaos or crashes."
Thanks Brett. Any thoughts, anyone?