Waltham has a wonderful infrastructure for keeping school children safe from passing motorists. It consists of having crossing guards stationed at every single crosswalk within a quarter mile of the school, each festooned with a reflective yellow vest and white Mickey Mouse gloves. There are yellow blinking signs that say 20 miles per hour, there is a radar sign that flashes your current speed in yellow, and there are yellow school placards everywhere. But the best part of it is having a person on every single street corner, watching you. How can you possibly speed by at 40 when you see a person standing there with a look of absolute disgust that says “you slimy child hater, you should rot in hell.” Sure, there are still some people who speed through, and yeah, they probably do belong in hell, but almost everyone stays within a reasonable speed (25±5mph) within the school zone.

And in addition to the “Big Mother is watching you” aspect, there is also a pretty blatant YELLOW = SCHOOL = SLOW thing being drilled into your head.