Outside my bedroom window down on the street about a hundred yards away is a crossroads complete with traffic lights. Newly installed speakers give off a loud penetrating clacking when the green man is shown. Despite this cars are still allowed to speed in between people crossing. There is never a time which is reserved just for pedestrians to move safely across the road. The loudspeakers are horribly loud and go on every time the green man appears, every couple of minutes all through the day and night. I (and almost certainly a hundred other residents living around the junction), have not been able to sleep.
So what to do? This is the main street of the city but it's residents are never consulted on anything, we have no voice as to what goes on. During the summer ghastly rock concerts are organised all along the street which go on til three in the morning, drunken people shout and stagger along the road stopping to spit and piss, ambulances speed down the supposedly pedestrian thoroughfare with ultra-loud sirens and horns blaring, ugly metal signs are chained to lamp-posts and clutter up the pavement etc etc. Residents signing petitions for the council to consider is unheard of and the idea would be laughed at.
Weighing all this up, tired and irate that my sleep had been interfered with, and will be from now on, and with seemingly no other option, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Around midday I left the house armed with a spanner, wire cutter & stepladder. I'd already done a reconnaissance and knew what needed doing. There was a speaker perched on the top of each red/green man light unit on every corner of the junction - 4 in all. Within a few minutes I had the 2 located on the nearest corners in my bag. During that time at least three police cars past me - they drive up and down the street with nothing to do, interspersed with screeching ambulances. 80% of the traffic on this main avenue is police, ambulances, and 'security' vehicles which is a Polish obsession. What a weird place Eastern Europe is. I was dressed like a builder on a paint covered step-ladder, no-one took any notice and besides which Polish police like to intimidate but are brainless. They are paid a pittance and are all open to bribery, many have second jobs. My kitchen was fitted by a numbskull copper who couldn't put a nail into a wall. The British don't know how fortunate they are. Nevertheless, I left the remaining two speakers as it should now be decidedly quieter, and if not I'll finish the job in the next few days. I hope it will not be neccessary to remove the final two as the silence would be noticed sooner rather than later and the speakers possibly replaced.
If the lights, and their co-ordinating speakers, were activated by someone pushing a button in order to cross then I might be able to tolerate it, although it's pointless anyway as cars do not stop. But why should I (amongst many others) be kept awake all through the night when the streets are deserted? An automatic system that serves no purpose except to keep people awake.
