Wait, how did I get on this bridge?

Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist is a brave guy, at least on this one.

No, he did not run into a burning building to pluck out a poodle in peril. But he did admit to something many of us have experienced, and set himself up for a seriously mockable moment in the process:

Some of us, Crist included, have a really hard time getting in and out of our airport.

No, we are not dumb. Yes, we comprehend road signs. A lot of us have been negotiating Tampa International Airport for decades.

But for all the ease and convenience we get smug about when we talk up our airport to those less fortunate, entering and exiting TIA can be Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, only with worse signage.

Blame a $215 million road reconstruction project finished two years ago, but we're confused. And it's hard to think of this as a road "improvement" when you leave fully intending to go to Tampa, except you blink and you are suddenly and irretrievably bound for Pinellas County on what turns out to be a very long bridge. Next comes the long and cranky ride back.

Drivers coming into the airport from various directions report similarly tricky business — whoa, that's my lane, think fast! — though at least those errors do not mean cursing your way across a large body of water, and back.

Add to the fun a legion of seriously confused out-of-towners who haven't had time to find their rental car blinkers before they're making last minute emergency maneuvers, squinting at signs and slaloming across lanes in front of you.

But who wants to admit failing to see traffic signs, especially ones that essentially say: Hey, Einstein, look alive or you're getting that 20-mile wrong-way scenic route?

Not me. But yes, me too.

So Crist, a member of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority that oversees the airport, stood up last week and said: "Hi, I'm Victor, and I'm a confused airport exiter," one who has taken that unintended trip to the wrong county more than once. To which the rest of us confused airport exiters chorused back, "Hi, Victor." Okay, we didn't, but we could have.

Mock Crist if you will, and some did, tagging him and us as pathetic people who could not drive our way out of a paper bag. But they were drowned out by a chorus of "Me too!," including fellow board member and, oh, by the way, doctor Joseph Diaco, who said you practically have to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure it out. Because being smart enough for a medical degree is apparently no guarantee you can find your way out of our airport.

Yeah, yeah, I know: We should pay better attention. But how about those out-of-towners? Shouldn't coming and going at our otherwise fabulous airport be easy instead of akin to a pop quiz in advanced calculus?

Glory be, help is on the way.

In response to Crist and the rest of us, the Florida Department of Transportation will soon install big symbols on highway lanes as one more way to help us find our way in, and study doing the same for the way out. It's a start. This week Crist had another wacky thought: clear, color-coded signs that point you to where you want to go. Wow.

So thanks from hapless drivers everywhere — particularly those of us who don't even have the excuse of not being from here and still can't find our way home.