highway signs

Ms. Donna rags me about the signs on our highways in Oklahoma.  The lack of signs when you exit the freeway is one problem.  You take the exit heading for a given destination but you're unfamiliar with the area.  You get to the end of the ramp where there's a stoplight and you have the opportunity to go any one of a few directions.  There's no sign anywhere telling you where you are or where the place you want to go is located.  Not even a street sign.  You just have to guess and turn around a mile or so later when you're wrong. 


She also likes to point out the signs that announce "Workers Ahead" when there are no workers anywhere around.  Sometimes there are people but they're never working.  More often there aren't any people.  And most of the time there's nothing;  no equipment or workers or non-workers or orange cones or anything.  Just the sign.


I really like the one that says "Left Lane Ends Ahead" so you change to the right lane and almost slam into the barricade before you quickly change back into the left lane to whiz on by.


I tell her that Oklahoma's not the only place with remarkable signs.  I'll never forget the sign in Philadelphia near her childhood home that says "BE AWARE OF AGGRESSIVE DRIVERS".  Heck, Oklahoma doesn't have any of that.  They don't drive aggressively, they just shoot you.


There's a sign on the highway out here by the house.  It says "Don't Run Over Our Workers". 
Below that it says "10,000 Dollar Fine".


Uh.  So.  If I'm a rich guy and need a little excitement, I can go ahead and knock one off and just write a check?


There's the sign but no workers.  No indication of any workers working there or having been there.  Maybe they have the sign up to tell you not to run over the workers who were putting up the sign.


And then I wonder.  Is it a $10,000 fine for running over one worker or a dozen of them.  I mean, if you hit one and you are still going, is it OK to go ahead and hit a few more since it won't cost anymore?  Or is it $10,00 for each worker.  And then, this is Oklahoma.  You've gotta consider, is it $10,000 for hitting a legal worker?  How much for an illegal one?  I'm sure if it's a state statute then you can hit as many as you want but if it's a federal statute then you could get life in prison for suggesting you want to run one over. 


I also wonder, if we apply my wife's shopping rule, if there are three workers out there then maybe I should run over one of them because that way I've saved $20,000.  Ms. Donna would be proud.


Highway signs should be used for the purpose of safety.  Too often they are placed somewhere that they aren't needed.  Maybe there's going to be something happening in the future or maybe there was something happening in the past and maybe they plan to take them down soon.  But they're out there right now either confusing people or mis-informing people.  Whatever, because of the stupidity of the placement and wording of many signs, people are to the point now where they ignore the signs.  And that's not a good thing.