A Sign of things to come?

I must admit when I saw this sign go up on South 1st St. last year, I wondered what it was for. Since then a number of others have gone up on the main arterial roads around downtown.

If you’d ever been to Montpellier in France you’d know that parking downtown is soooo simple, they have large signs on the way in telling you how many available spaces in which lots. Nope that’s not what these are for.

I wondered if they were maybe for game day, maybe posting the latest score from UT. Nope. Given it’s Austin, maybe positive wibes on the way to work, “Today y’all gonna make money!”. Nope. Then I figured maybe they were to broadcast city hall meetings live, maybe Mayor Leffingwell  has aspirations to broadcast Prothero-like safety and security announcements from City Hall? Nope.

Turns out the signs are for traffic conditions. Given the limited number of alternative routes into the city from the south, if South 1st gets really jacked up, I can’t imagine the sign suggesting I35, and from where the sign is, there’s no route to South Lamar, so I figure the signs will either say, “Give up, turn ’round and go home” or “You shoulda came on your horse!”

Then I thought about it some more, California dreaming!