Audience and Traffic behaviour for your show

[fasteddy]

I'm just wondering about peoples experiences with people and traffic with their shows and how they manage to balance between keeping neighbours happy and the putting on a show.

For me this year word of mouth has spread very quickly with at least 200 cars coming past a night, my house is on a very quiet small suburban backwater street that goes back around on itself but turns into a single lane that is 2 way. This was causing kaos until I started diverting traffic around 1 Way. I attempted to get a permit but was told by council that it was too late but instead to 'encourage' traffic to flow 1 way which I'm doing with signage that is lit by some RGB strip powered by a small 12VDC rechargeable battery. Ive also had to reduce the show down to 1 song just to keep traffic flowing but everyone seems happy now as it feels as Ive struck a good balance between neighbours and viewers.

What does amaze me is of all the people that come and act like idiots or go the wrong way or block traffic have 100% been young provisional drivers. Its now to the point that if i see someone doing something stupid I look straight at the car for the P plate and every time the car has had one.

Ive also decided to only run the show until 10.15pm at night as what i have found is the majority of visitors after that time are young inconsiderate idiots that think its acceptable to have their 100000 watt car stereos blarring away at full volume rattling eveyones windows.

So now I feel i have struck a good balance and as I say to the neighbours is "your going to be impacted but all I can do is attempt to minimise that impact" and that i have done with great success.

 

[Beacy]

I am in a similar situation living in a long narrow court, unfortunately there is nothing I can do re traffic, just cross my fingers the council doesn't make an issue of it at some stage or it may end up as light off, but luckily most drivers are smart enough to pull up onto the nature strip to allow traffic past. The end of the week will be interesting.

"P" drivers are and always have been, stupid and inconsiderate, think it the old saying goes "Young, Dumb & full of ....) We have not had problems with them this year as it has been so wet there 1000w of power has been within closed car windows, However if it becomes a problem my theory is I have speakers out the front that go to 10.30 if I get a moron that cranks up his car stereo I will flick the switch on the FM transmitter that way I am the only one controlling the volume. This is also the reason I won't use heavy rock songs

Good luck with the traffic Control Eddy

 

[Dave]

I sent out a letter to all the neighbours back in November letting them know what i was doing..so it wasn't a big surprise for them. A couple of them have roped off thier front yards.
I live on a so called back street 6m wide and 50 km/h with bush on the other side of the road.

1) I have had a problem with speeding cars before the show started in December, now the show has slowed them down and even the neighbours are happy about that. Still get some idiots though.

2) Not having any houses across the road allows for plenty of parking spaces for everyone. But still get a lot of traffic congestion.

3) Working away from home in the mines, i have left all the problems with the minister for I.T and the minister for entertainment (my dear wife) to look after. But she has told me i have to take holidays for the whole of December next year.

Other than some program faults where some lights fail during sequences all is good.

Dave

 

[XDU]

I live in a cul de sac and traffic was always a worry. I simply do not advertise. A lot of my neighbours have young kids and they and their friends make up the audience. Although the number of visitors is increasing each year, I don't have many issues as the neighbours like to think of it as their private show and only invite "trusted " friends.

 

[David_AVD]

I also live in a cul-de-sac (only 9 houses) and only get cars looking here and there. Next year I think I'll add our street to the list in the local paper and online, as there are now 5 of us with lights of some kind up.

We also get parents with kids walking past in the early evening. (I put them on about 6:30pm) It's always nice to hear the kids say "Ooh, look at the [feature] mum/dad".

I don't think my display will ever be as extensive as you guys, so traffic control should not be an issue for me. Luckily our street is too short for anyone to do any speeding!

 

[Robbo]

his is only my first year doing musical animations, and is only our 3rd year hanging lights at all, I started it just for self satisfaction and to please my own 3 kids, and so far our audience is word of mouth from kids friends who tell their parents they want to see our lights...and they all love it, few are sharing my videos on facebook and the comments we are getting are very flattering, we live in a decent street, but so far traffic is not a concern, I'll address that issue if and when it happens.

 

[Mike]

Im basically just down the road from a park. Its 3 houses away. Some nights people park over there and walk over other nights I have had 8 cars parked up at once in front of my house.

Traffic hasnt been too much of a problem so far for me. The street isnt a culdesac and runs into one of the main ateries into the housing estate. People have been curteous to others which has been good. I think it also helps a few others have put up lights, although not as extensive.

 

[fasteddy]

Well last night i had some useless young inconsiderate A-hole steal one of my diversion signs. It really does amaze me the level of scum that would go and steal a 12 dollar sign that helps direct traffic to Christmas lights.

 

[prof]

I know the feeling. I picked up empty beer bottles from out in front of my house the other morning. Also a couple of the songs I have sequenced are "techno" versions, and a few times now I have had people turning up their car stereos to share the moment with the rest of the street. So I guess next year I will go for more traditional carols to try and discourage the unwanted behaviour.

 

[prof]

As a follow up, I Have just had a visit from someone on santas naughty list. They decided to rearange a row of candy canes that are running across the front of my yard. Luckily there was no real damage done and all are back up and running.

 

[fj]

i guess i'm lucky, my street is a through road so cars can travel from one end to the other without having to turn around to get back out again. And there are only 4 houses in the street. 3 of us have light displays and one grinch doesn't. so far no complaints. i'm guessing in the few nights before christmas we were having about 50-60 cars and probably just as many people walking around. not a huge crowd - seeing a fairly constant stream of cars and people is a bit of a buzz, especially when you here the kids screaming with excitement !

on christmas eve, we had a BBQ with the neighbours, sat out the front of the house and handed out lollies to the kids (and parents) that were stopping to take a look at our street.

we have been lucky so far, everyone who has visited has been very respectful and patient.

someone around the corner who has a fairly large non-computerised static display got there picture in the local paper and i'm sure that bought a lot of people our way too.