New Painted Stripes

On the main road outside our complex, I noticed today that the lane stripes were bright white - they were freshly painted. I am slightly complexed as to why they would paint new stripes, when I think it just confuses drivers. The majority of drivers here have no idea why there are stripes on the road, have no idea what lanes are and just drive whereever they want to. I am thinking that since it was supposed to snow last night and didn't - that maybe there were people hired to street sweep the snow away, but since it didn't snow, they thought it would be a good idea to paint lines on the street, give them something to do.