The buses stopped, the signs remained

I was encouraged by this sign: someone had the idea to try out a bus service in Phnom Penh, and with signs with decent graphic design to boot (more on this in a later post).However, I was discouraged too: not only did the experiment not work (there is no bus service now), but no one has bothered to remove the signs, 7 years later.

From what I've heard, this is not atypical: projects are started, but there is not enough follow up, so they wither and die. As to why they die, I'm not sure. Was it a good idea with not enough funding? Was it a good idea but with poor implementation? Or was it an idea that would be good elsewhere but didn't fit the context of Phnom Penh? Or maybe just the time wasn't right, and it should be tried again---the streets of Phnom Penh are starting to getting clogged as most people have traded in their bikes for scooters and would like to trade their scooters for cars. If that's the case, maybe it's good they left the signs up.