ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Something doesn’t look quite right on A1A near South Ponte Vedra, according to some St. Johns County residents.
On the actual roadway, the dotted lines have been painted over to create a solid lane, which keeps people from passing.
This month, a St. Johns County man noticed something different on A1A near South Ponte Vedra, and he posted about it on the Nextdoor app.
"Who is the knucklehead who decided to paint his own solid center line north of Seranata where there was a short passing lane? Next time at least paint two lines, make them straight, use the right color and the right reflective paint. Unbelievable!"
Sure enough, when I drove over there, the middle line separating the two lanes looked like it had been freshly painted, and the color is a little bit off.
It also looks like the dotted line, which allowed for a driver to go around a slower moving car, has been painted solid, but it’s only for about a distance of approximately 500 feet.
It is just north of the roadway where it juts around the Serenata Beach Club.
I checked with the Department of Transportation. According to a spokesman, repainting lines on a road is against the law, just like stealing a road sign or a barricade.
While at the scene of the mystery, I found an unused paint roller brush on the side of the road. So who did this and why?
Hours after doing more research, a Florida DOT Community Outreach Specialist, Sara Pleasants, got back to me.
She said those yellow lines are the doing of the DOT.
Pleasants explained “this passing zone was too short for drivers to legally complete a passing maneuver within the speed limit on the roadway."
So it turns out the DOT did this paint job which at least one man describes as not straight or the right color.
It’s just temporary, and a more permanent one is in the works, Pleasants said.
The case of the stripes that stumped some folks, now solved.