On the way to work I saw another person with this odd type of configuration...

They have drop bars and they flip them over and it looks like bullhorns. What is the use of this? Why don't people just get MTB flat bars instead of doing this? It seems pretty strange, I see no benefit, actually the brakes are hard to reach(from the looks of it).

Anyone see this before? I haven't seen serious roadies do this but I have seen a number of poor'ish looking people do this.