Okay, this happened on a stretch of highway that’s been under construction for-fucking-ever, so the signs I am about to describe have been around for awhile.
First, a sign appears warning there is construction ahead. The next sign says LANE CLOSURE AHEAD followed closely by another sign: USE BOTH LANES TO MERGE POINT.
I think the average driver, seeing this, will assume this means “Don’t merge yet; use both lanes until we tell you not to.”
So, the terminally stupid (or perhaps jerkish) driver, shortly after the first sign, begins to ride the center line of the two lanes. Yes, he is using both lanes, as the sign said. He’s also clogging up two lanes of traffic!
Naturally he couldn’t be in a Mini Cooper, oh no. He’s driving a king cab truck, which is pulling a flatbed trailer upon which are two ATVs. (This, I admit, prejudices me into thinking he’s a jerk rather than just stupid, although he could be both.)
He proceeds, blocking two lanes, apparently not realizing that, of all the cars on this stretch of the highway, not one other driver has interpreted the sign the way he did.
I wonder what the hell he made of the next sign, which said: MERGE HERE TAKE TURNS. [ETA: the centerline upon which he was oh-so-meticulously keeping under the center of his vehicle disappeared and the two lines became one, so I guess he thought he’d merged]
I have heard that one should never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. I wonder what this guy would do with the sign at the emissions place that tells you to FORM SIX LANES ? I am all for splitting him into six parts, myself. --HNS, maliciously