One Car Over the Line

I do it frequently enough that I shouldn't be surprized by the things that I see as I walk to work. But the world keeps changing on me, and the things I see keep changing right along with it. Months ago, when they started doing road construction on my path to work, I was annoyed. They completely tore up the side of the road I walk down, requiring me to use the (slower and much more dangerous) other side for about a month.

I don't think the cars very much appreciated me using the other side either, as they kept having to stop to let me cross in front of them.

So when they put back my side of the street, when it was again in working order, I was pretty happy. Although they left the crosswalk signal un-connected, so I had to walk further down the road than I liked. They still painted the crosswalk lines and I thought the world was going to be a happy place again really soon.

I was wrong.

It wouldn't be very interesting if I'd been right. "City does road construction! Roads are now safer and more friendly!" Possibly front-page news, as most road construction never ends, but still not all that interesting. No, I was wrong. They left the crosswalk closed for several months, nearly half a year. Including today, although I'm hopeful the construction will end soon.

I discovered that over the weekend, they re-painted the crosswalk lines. About fifteen feet further down the road than they had before. So last time, they painted some useless lines in completely the wrong place.

Since they didn't turn the signals on, I figure they had to have known that they were going to do more construction. So I've found myself wondering, why exactly /did/ they go ahead and paint the crosswalk lines, lines that they now are going to have to go through the effort of 'removing' in some manner, so people don't find themselves trying to walk through random cars' back seats on their way to the other side of the road.

I suppose the city probably had too much money, and had to use it /somehow/ so they had an excuse to get some more.