Way out West (incorporating Way up North)

The Index of Social Inventions #1

Sometime when, a long, long, time ago, my curiosity was piqued by a reference to a collection wherein people could contribute their socially useful ideas, not as a profit making venture, but in a small way for the collective good of humanity.

It's quite possible I may have made this up, or dreamed it, but even so, it still seems like a good notion to me and so I propose to make occasional visits to this conceit whenever something occurs to me.

So, some ground rules; ideas can be practical, or theoretical, the main thing is that they need to improve the quality of life, or at least make it more easily understood.

Here are three ideas that occurred to me:

1) Fit supermarket trollies with small bicycle bells. I don't know if it's just me, but I keep finding my way blocked by shoppers, who have either used their trollies to barricade themselves in while they peruse the yoghurt section at extreme leisure, or are simply unaware that they are pushing a metal battering ram. I almost always use a basket, as I am very aware of my personal space, and don't like to get in the way of others, but some means of politely penetrating the dwalm that seems to overtake some shoppers might lead me to take up the trolley.

2) A reject coins jar by the supermarket coin sorting machine. If, like me, you dump your loose change into a pot, and every now and again cash it in, there are inevitably a few interlopers that the machine rejects, it just occurred to me that a smart charity could strategically position a collecting jar or bucket by the machine, and encourage users to recycle the useless coins.

3) Axle load indicators for vans and trucks. Given how wired modern vehicles are, it seems strange that this isn't an option, some cars can tell you what their tyre pressures are, for example. The load sensors are cheap enough, and correct axle weights are increasingly significant. It's not an earth shatteringly important idea, just something that would simplify life for some people.

So, feel free to comment or contribute, I will return to this subject again.

posted by Lampy @ 1/23/2019 03:57:00 pm