Mannequin in orange underpants has taken over speed patrol from man

The wife of a man who donned orange underpants to protest about speeding on the A46 in Gloucestershire has now delegated the job to her mannequin. Joanna Auburn's husband Paul Ryder stopped traffic when he appeared beside the busy road in his bright orange Calvin Kleins back in February. Worried for the safety of villagers, Cotswold Way walkers and motorists alike, Joanna is determined to get the speed limit in the village reduced from 40mph to 30mph.



But while she battles with officialdom, she has decided to co-opt the services of a mannequin she keeps for the modelling of clothing to sell on e-Bay. Joanna has dressed the dummy in a pair of women's Calvin Kleins and popped a speed limit sign round its neck before erecting it beside the A46 in Pennsylvania, South Gloucestershire. "She's causing quite a stir with lorries driving by tooting their horns," she said. "There's people slowing down and giving the thumbs-up. It's a bit of fun." While Joanna admits that most people are probably slowing down out of curiosity, she is happy that it is having the desired effect.





Joanna has been begging for help from Avon and Somerset Police, Highways England and the South Gloucestershire Council ever since she and Paul moved into the village in January. Her efforts were rewarded with the promise of help from police to set up a Community Speed Watch group, but the five villagers who have volunteered for the scheme need final training before they can start monitoring speeds in the area with a hand-held speed gun. Joanna hopes that the data they collect will convince Highways England of the need to reduce the speed limit in Pennsylvania to 30mph.



The agency has told her it needs to see evidence of collisions "including frequency, severity, types and causes et al" before it would consider reducing the speed limit. "The evidence to date in terms of recorded accidents in simple terms is that there are not many and they do not appear overtly associated with excessive speed," a representative from the agency told her in an email. But Joanna said there have been six collisions on the A46 in Pennsylvania in the past three months. Joanna has told Highways England about the incidents and is determined to inform the agency as each collision occurs from now on. "It's a hard battle, but I'm not going to give up," she said.