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give me a sign!

Bedford Street in Lexington is a road that we drive on often, whenever we have occasion to visit points east, so we have many opportunities to notice the incredible profusion of 'no left turn' signs which adorn the the road's west-bound lane.

The scene is this: for a short stretch, just after the road crosses the highway, there are two lanes of traffic in each direction. On your left as you go towards Bedford is a collection of small office buildings, motels and restaurants: no roads. Then at the end of the section is an intersection where you can reverse direction. So, to discourage people from turning left across traffic into the various parking lots, the traffic engineers put up 'no left turn' signs every twenty yards or so, plus one at each parking-lot entrance. A few of them even have two or three signs on one pole. Really, I have nowhere else, ever, seen so many signs saying the same thing on such a short stretch of road.

So why is that, every time I drive that way, someone is turning left?

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