See that little white smudge next to the larger smudge in the middle of the overpass?
There! That's mine - been up for two weeks now. It's a pity you can't actually read it, because it's rather fitting:
If you're wondering "What's that supposed to mean?" it's the current number of parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere. Sometimes I'll illustrate it like this:
It's a bit of a dog whistle I'll admit, which is probably why it's sat undisturbed by 100,000 or so drivers every day for the past two weeks. I figure the tiny fraction who know what it means wouldn't want to take it down, nor would the vast majority who didn't. The people who the sign's really meant for are the ones that recognize the figure from somewhere but can't quite recall where. I've always liked somewhat cryptic signs because they force people to think a bit more.
Of course, I also do much larger and more obvious signs, like this beauty I hung right at sunset two days ago:
Alas though, signs like that are generally quick to come down.
The exceptions are the shut-down pedestrian bridges, like this one over the 405 at Manchester/La Cienega. It's very tricky getting into this thing, so unless the sign's too big and in-your-face for the authorities to bear, your message is good for 150,000 viewers per day - each direction. I used a mid-size sign for this - about 2 feet by ten - big enough for everyone to see, but not so big that Caltrans or climate-change deniers would be motivated to climb in there and get it.
HOW TO MAKE SIGNS
I always have a bunch of different signs in the car with me, along with duct-tape and bungee cords, so I can strike wherever and whenever the opportunity arises. Here are a few of the other signs I've put up in the last two weeks:
I really do love this job.