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| | Dear Road Wizard: I have moved here from a rainy state where the lines painted on the street are visible when wet. Here, they seem to disappear when wet. Is it poor quality paint, less frequent refreshing, or what? B.W.@ |
| | I'm guessing you come from a non-snowplow state. Here's why:
When rain water covers the street, it will inundate all paint lines both faded and fresh. Your car light hits the water surface, can't penetrate beneath it, and bounces off in all directions except back to you.
The obvious solution is to raise the paint – and the reflective beads it contains - so that it will remain above water when it's raining. Two common techniques can work. One is to apply durable marking tape, which sometimes sits high enough above the wet to reveal its outline and maybe some color. The other is to apply reflective pavement markers (RPMs), little squares that stick up above the water and reflect back to you.
Snow-less places like (coastal) California are major accounts for RPMs. Snowplows don't threaten their long and happy life on the streets. ACHD applied some on Cole Road south of Century Way a couple years ago to solve a special problem, but you won't know it now because snowplows popped them off this past winter.
ACHD uses tape at major intersections and for other special applications. You can see an example at the Cloverdale/Fairview intersection. In a good puddly rain, even the best tape drowns and disappears.
Raised markers and tapes cost A LOT more than everyday beaded paint, so ACHD is frugal in their use. The laws of optical physics rule the rain in all 50 states, so if your former state has repealed them somehow, the paint chiefs in 49 other states would like to know about it.
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