Pac-Man is back. Only this time, he's bigger — and he's gobbling up dots on Highway 55.

Large white dots painted on the highway to deter motorists from tailgating have been joined by a giant, yellow image of the video game icon.

The image of Pac-Man was placed on the road surface last month, and its creators have snuck back at least once to touch it up. Traffic engineer Tom Dumont was not pleased:

I'd hate to say positive things because I don't want to encourage people to try to paint something on a busy highway. But at least it's made the project a little more noteworthy.

Highway engineer Wayne Fingalson saw some humor in the situation:

It's kind of comical. Somebody really did a good job of meticulously putting that (Pac-Man) in the dots.

The 7-foot anti-tailgating dots are spaced 225 feet apart and signs along the highway advise motorists to maintain two dots between their car and the one in front. That's the distance needed to stop in three seconds at 55 MPH

UPDATE: GP reader Dave Mooney sent in a pic of the dot-gobbling Route 55 Pac-Man. Thanks, Dave!