The mysterious appearance of a road cone on top of a Victoria University bus stop late last month has finally been explained.
Last week a first-year student admitted to placing the road cone on the roof of the bus stop outside Kelburn Campus’ UniStop, where it has remained for over a fortnight.
First noticed by a university cleaner, the cone had left university staff, students and Go Wellington bus drivers questioning how and why it had been placed on top of the bus stop.
A student, who wished to remain anonymous, approached Salient last week with information about the cone.
He says he and his friends threw the cone onto the roof of the bus stop after a “raging night” at student bar the Big Kumara. On the way home the group passed a set of cones left around at a local roadworks site.
“One of my mates grabbed it and was like, wearing it as a hat and stuff. Then we were pretending we had massive orange dicks. It was pretty funny, eh.”
The students did not realise how far they had carried the cone until they reached the university.
“It was pretty heavy and we’d all had a go with it, so we chucked it up there so we could laugh about it again on Monday at uni. We didn’t think anyone would notice and, like, care, you know?”
University Public Transport Manager Denise Sherold says she is glad to have the issue resolved.
“We like to monitor these developments and get to the bottom of them as fast as possible.”
She says that the university will take a stricter stance in future.
“Although the student will not be punished in this instance, we warn other students that this kind of behaviour is not funny, nor is it acceptable,” she chuckled.
Students spoken to by Salient say they had enjoyed the placement of the cone.
“Everyday when I walked past it to go to UniStop it’d crack me up. It was just so weird, I wanna meet the guys who put it up there!”
Salient understands that the cone will be removed and returned to the Transport Association as soon as possible.
The Transport Association’s Traffic Cone Division last month released a Traffic Cone Retention Report. Statistics indicated that theft and loss of cones in the last year has increased by 16 per cent since 2008.
The report could not explain the increase but did identify common causes and sources of theft and loss, including bus stop roofs, student flats, Facebook-initiated ‘Steal a Road Cone’ days and on top of drunken party-goers’ heads.