An art lecturer at the University of East London has been ordered to remove a public-art installation from a busy intersection in Ashford, Kent, after it caused a dozen fender-benders, the Daily Mail reported.

Credit: KNP via the Daily Mail

“Lost O,” by Michael Pinsky, consists of a do-not-enter sign, a one-way sign, a sign denoting a roundabout (English English for a traffic circle), and several others. None of the signs applies to the road in question.

Drivers “don’t know which of the signs to obey,” Ann Steare, a local resident, told the newspaper. “It is amazing that it was allowed in the first place.”

The semiotic artwork, paid for with public arts money, was installed in conjunction with a Tour de France stage that passed through Kent last weekend. Brits of a certain age would say this glimpse at roadside chaos is only to be expected when a French bicycle race is permitted to start in old England. —Don Troop