You know what’s worse than someone taking your parking space at the mall? When they take your space and block your driveway at your own home or business. One Australian has apparently solved this tricky problem in a delightfully watery way.
As covered by 9Now, the system is the creation of Rockhampton local Bruce Kerr. Kerr operates an IT business in the town, and has long suffered with customers of neighboring businesses intruding on his driveway. Signs did little to deter this bad behavior.
Kerr’s solution was to install a sprinkler system, giving offending parkers the soaking of their life. “Block the gate, meet your fate,” said Kerr.
It’s a neat way to manage problem parkers. It doesn’t do any damage, but it makes it more than clear to the offenders that they’re not supposed to be blocking this drive.
The system is not automated. Instead, Kerr keeps a close eye on the driveway via surveillance cameras and triggers it manually to soak offending drivers. “From all the cameras we’ve got, we’re pretty quickly alerted when someone’s parked there and so we flick a switch,” Kerr explained to 9Now. “We don’t even have to actually leave our desks to do that.”
Responses from the public have been aggressive, at times. Footage captured by Kerr includes soakees flipping the bird, ripping off the parking signs, or trying to tear down the sprinkler itself.
It would actually be trivial to automate the system if so desired. A cheap single-board computer like the Raspberry Pi can run image recognition algorithms quite easily, identifying humans and vehicles where they’re not supposed to be. Hook one of these up to a solenoid valve in line with the sprinkler, and you’ve got a set-and-forget driveway defense system.
However, there is a caveat to automation. It would be relatively trivial to cause trouble by simply triggering the system and standing there indefinitely. Or, if you don’t like getting wet, a convincing mannikin could stand in for you. This would cause excess water use, costing the owner money, and potentially even turn the driveway into a mudbath. Indeed, in video shared on Tiktok by Rockhampton Chaos, one cheeky local took advantage of the sprayer to cool off during recent hot weather.
@rockhamptonchaos One of Rockhampton’s biggest attractions ????
@rockhamptonchaos “Why don’t you report it to the council?”… The local council ????
Kerr’s solution might seem over the top, but the way he tells it, he was left with little other option. “The council can’t do anything, we tried sending number plates to police and what not, that didn’t seem to have any effect,” he told A Current Affair. “That’s when we started the water works.” Indeed, there’s even a video of a police vehicle blocking the driveway and getting a hosedown. For now, the sprinkler just runs on mains water pressure. However, Kerr has plans to go further. “With the multi-stage centrifugal [pump], we’re gonna crank that up to 55 to 58 psi.”
Of course, one might question whether Kerr’s sprinkler system is actually achieving its intended goal. It does seem to encourage people to leave the driveway rather than blocking it in some cases. However, overall, the sheer number of videos online suggest that the cars keep coming, water or no.
@rockhamptonchaos “Why don’t you report it to the police?” The police ????????
♬ GTA San Andreas Theme (Remake) – Ben Morfitt (SquidPhysics)
Ultimately, though, those blocking Kerr’s driveway will likely find little sympathy for their misdeeds, no matter how wet they get. Karma is often most appreciated when it’s instant and righteous.
Image credits: David Aaron via YouTube screenshot
In the words of Dave Grohl, “There goes my hero.”