Traffic & Transit

SEE: Hacked Park Slope Road Signs Beg 'Ban Cars, Stop Driving'

Two digital road signs set up on Union Street briefly flashed "Ban Cars Stop Driving" and "Cars Ruin Cities" messages on Monday afternoon.

Two digital road signs set up on Union Street briefly flashed "Ban Cars Stop Driving" and "Cars Ruin Cities" messages on Monday afternoon.
Two digital road signs set up on Union Street briefly flashed "Ban Cars Stop Driving" and "Cars Ruin Cities" messages on Monday afternoon. (GoogleMaps.)

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Park Slopers have taken the car-culture debate to the streets — literally.

Two digital street signs set up in the neighborhood to warn of construction detours were hacked Monday afternoon to flash "Ban Cars, Stop Driving" and "Cars Ruin Cities" messages at drivers instead, according to photos of the signs taken by a WNYC videographer Amy Pearl and first reported in Gothamist.

The signs appeared on Union Street, one between Seventh and Eighth avenues and another between Fifth and Sixth avenues, the Twitter user told the city's Department of Transportation.

Find out what's happening in Park Slopefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Their mysterious messages come a week after a fraught meeting about bike lanes in the neighborhood devolved into shoves, screaming matches and a mutiny of one of its moderators. The meeting was the second organized by Ninth Street residents protesting two bike lanes added on that corridor.

By nightfall Monday, both Union Street signs had been either changed back to their original messages or taken off the streets.

Find out what's happening in Park Slopefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

DOT said that the signs do not belong to them — they said online that one was removed after an inspection — but did not answer when asked if they know who owns the signs. The sign that wasn't taken away was back to flashing an alternate route message by Monday night, video shows.

Some Twitter users noted that digital signs are not difficult to "hack" given that most come with the same default password.

This is far from the first time pranksters have put their own messages onto electronic street signs.

Gothamist recalled a Queens sign that was hacked with a message hailing the North Korea in 2017, a "New York Is Dying" message on another and a "Sh-- Bird ORL" sign way back in 2009. Just last year, a Greenpoint sign on the Pulaski Bridge lit up with "F--- Trump"

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