What is Wrong with the Road Paint? 6 February 2006
Pretty good title, eh?
But seriuously, there is something wrong with the road paint here in Utah.
Granted, I grew up in Seattle, where every few feet there is a reflector glued to the road on the lines, so when it rains really hard, you can still see the road lines. Road reflectors here wouldn’t last very long in a fight against a snowplow.
But does that mean they have to use bad road paint? Isn’t there a paint they could use that has at least a tiny hint of a relective property?
No, no, guess not. Seeing as how when the sun goes down the lines disappear. Or even in the daytime when it happens to rain in this desert place, no more road lines to see. It’s like magic disappearing ink/paint–Lane? What lane? I don’t see any lines…crash.
And let’s expand this lament to the various places where the road painting is changed and they don’t remove the old paint–now the highway has 6 overlapping lanes, instead of just 3 side by side. Which is my lane? Left, right? Oh I guess I’ll just drive 75 mph “between” the other cars, since the road lines don’t clearly communicate. Safe? Yeah, I thought so too.
I’ve also noticed it isn’t just the roadways that are bad–parking lots, asphalt painted handicap signs that have been “removed”, etc. It’s like permanent poor paint. And it’s probably way expensive. Way to go on the tax expenditures.
Seriously. What is wrong with the road paint?