This weekend's project is detailed topography for ADA compliance on a large commercial center, recently purchased by my best client. I did as much of the horizontal as I could yesterday with RTK , away from the buildings, and set the control points for the detailed reflectorless elevations. I figured it would be easier today (Sunday) with fewer cars. I'd rather be in church with my wife, but the job can't be done during the week because of the packed parking lots.
I was wrong. More cars this morning than yesterday, especially where I started. Turn out that "Plasma" building is where the locals can sell their blood, and they were out in force this morning. All of them came out eyes glued to their smart phone, texting, and never saw the little wood blocks I use for targets as they kicked the blocks down the drive. One woman managed to navigate to her car without actually looking where she was going, then ran over one of my traffic cones as she left. She said, and I quote: "I never saw it!" What a surprise that was. Geez.
Why reflectorless rather than robotic?
I tried robotic several years ago in a busy parking lot and didn't think much of it. I realize opinions on that may vary, but that's my two cents worth.
Sounds similar to my Saturday stakeout. I had a stakeout in a high dollar and busy subdivision for a brand new house and I had setup my baseline the day before. Silly me for thinking there would be no body around on a Saturday morning... The owner to the east happened to be moving that day and had three moving trucks coming and one was directly in the way of my little hole of a baseline through the vegetation. They did move the truck and once I had my backsight set up they stayed clear until we were through, but dang, sometimes Mondays are the best days to get things done. Kicking your blocks and running over your cones is definitely unacceptable though, I mean can't a guy just survey in peace?
Just did a bunch of flood certs in a big shopping area. We had great success avoiding said shoppers, by showing up early. They really don't start showing up till about 11:00 or so. We had a lot of our business done by then. By the time it got busy, we had moved to the backside of the buildings where there we no shoppers...except the one getting into the police cruiser in cuffs. Interesting...
I remember surveying a Target shopping center when a young woman was taken out in cuffs. It got interesting when she told her boyfriend to jump on the cop. Police don't like you doing that.
