Top Write Corner

[A] Upon first driving into Mesa about a year ago, we saw several puzzling signs, pointing the way to "PIR." What in tarnation is a "PIR"?

Luckily--or unluckily, depending on how you look at it--we bumped into some rabid NASCAR fans about a month later, and they cracked the code for us: Phoenix International Raceway.

[B] We had been noticing an equally-cryptic acronym on the carpool/diamond lane signs ("HOV 2+"), and that one kept us guessing for several weeks longer. It obviously limits the lane to Vehicles ("V") containing two or more people ("2+"), but what kind of Vehicles: [1] Huggable Orange Vehicles; [2] Hummer Offroad Vehicles; or maybe [3] Horrendously Overblown Vehicles? (Oops, sorry - #3 is indistinguishable from #2.)

Nosiree, Bob. "HOV" refers to High Occupancy Vehicles. Hm. The bureaucrats not only created an obscure term, they also hid the term behind its initials.

Maybe this is why Europeans use pictograms on their road signs...



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