It wasn’t just a figure of speech in a California town when drivers ran into a fork in the road. It was an actual fork.
The oversized kitchen utensil was 6 feet high, made of wood, painted silver and mounted in the concrete island at an intersection. Unfortunately, the City didn’t see the humor in it. KXLY has the story.
This reminds me of when I worked for the City of Spokane and one of the engineers referred, in writing, to a “wye” in the road. Being from a public outreach background and not an engineering one, I did what any public relations person would do and mocked him. Of course I was wrong, what I had been calling a “Y” in the road all along was really a “wye.” And I was never allowed to forget that. The next time that engineer had a party, he sent out directions that included taking a right at the wye. And when I got there, yep, there was a sign at the split in the road that said simply “wye.” I stole the sign and still have it in my shed, just waiting for the right moment for retribution.