I think that some wrong things on signs need to be corrected. For example, when I was a young driver, the sign 'Lane ends merge' had me baffled. I think that it should say 'Lane ends. Merge left.'

However, over the years I have realized that when driving, one is using the spatial part of the brain (the so-called right brain) more than the verbal part. And the right brain uses simple, primitive words. 'Ped', for example.

When I am driving past of row of parked cars, I check for drivers, lights or exhaust - any sign that a car is starting and might pull out. To cue that, my right brain asks 'Are they waking up?'

If a car is dead still and has no driver, I think 'It's asleep.'

My husband and I are comfortable with helping each other drive. (We don't go for this neurotic 'back-seat driver' stuff.) The other day he was checking to the left when a bicyclist rode up on the right.

I didn't say, 'Darling, I don't know if you noticed, but there is a bicyclist in dark clothes pedaling silently in from the right.' No, I hollared 'bike!' and the DH hit the brake.

That is an example of the simple language that the spatial brain needs, and highway signs need to be written with those needs in mind.