Roadside Memorials: Where Does it End?

As many of us agreed in class, roadside memorials are very effective, often more effective than memorials placed in public parks. They seem to be an effective tool for awareness about the true dangers of car accidents. People have even said that upon seeing a massive cluster of flowers and stuffed animals, they tend to take their foot off the gas. Even so, how appropriate are these roadside memorials? Is it fair for people to be able to leave objects lying around in a public space without any sense of authority or ownership? It seems to be a growing trend for people to leave things at a site where loved ones have died on the side of the road. At what point does this become overkill? With an abundance of these roadside memorials, their effect on awareness if bound to decline when people simply become numb to these various memorials. Roadside crashes are certainly not on the decline, and eventually our streets will become overwhelmingly littered with various crosses and sentiments. It seems to me that a gravesite is a more appropriate space to place these types of sentiments. Its not that I’m not an insensitive human being, I do feel for these people. But where does it end?