Lane

::For people named Lane and other uses of the word, please see Lane (disambiguation).

Lane markings

In general, broken lines mean passing is allowed, single solid lines mean it is discouraged, and double solid lines mean it is prohibited, as it often is in tunnels.

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In most countries, yellow is used down the center to denote oncoming traffic is across the line. On a divided road (or dual carriageway or twinned road), a median (central reservation) segregates the traffic. White is usually used to separate traffic going in the same direction. Some places have this reversed.

Related Topics:
Divided road - Median

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Some Western European countries reserve white for routine lane markings of any kind, and use yellow to indicate when lanes are being shifted temporarily to make room for construction projects. Although New Zealand follows the normal convention of a double yellow line to indicate no passing on roads with two-way traffic, it also uses a dashed white line to indicate when passing against opposing traffic is allowed on two-lane roads and to separate lanes going in the same direction, with humorous results.

Related Topics:
Western Europe - New Zealand

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In all countries, private roads and parking lots often ignore the rules altogether.

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In the U.K., zig-zag lines painted on the street mark a pedestrian crossing area. In the U.S., such areas (crosswalks) are indicated at a minimum by a pair of white lines. On major boulevards, crosswalks are further highlighted by zebra stripes, which are large white rectangles in the crosswalk perpendicular to traffic.

Related Topics:
U.K. - Zig-zag - Pedestrian crossing - U.S.

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"Neutral" areas where traffic is prohibited are often painted with stripes. These areas are often called the gore or gore point where they are formed by the merging or separation of lanes.

Related Topics:
Neutral - Stripe - Gore

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Lines are usually painted with highly reflective paint, often with tiny clear beads that reflect light straight back like a raindrop. Glass and now plastic reflectors are often embedded next to the lines for improved nighttime visibility. In California and Nevada, the reflectors are usually the lines, and no paint is used. Exceptions include: freeways built from white concrete where painted stripes are added to make the lanes more visible through sun glare, freeways built so wide that the risk of drifting is minimal (e.g., Interstate 5 in the Central Valley), and freeways in areas where it snows in the winter (since the snowplows would scrape off the Botts Dots).

Related Topics:
Reflective - Glass - Plastic - Reflector - Visibility - California - Nevada - Interstate 5 - Central Valley - Botts Dots

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Frequently, the "back" of the white reflectors are red, to indicate the wrong direction of travel for anyone who enters the wrong way.

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In California, the white round ceramic button reflectors used to mark lanes on most freeways are known as Botts dots, after Eugene Botts, the Caltrans engineer who invented the epoxy that keeps them glued down. A large number of California cities also use Botts dots on some (or all) major arterials. The notable exception is the City of Los Angeles, which cannot afford to maintain any raised lane markers due to its fiscal problems and uses only paint.

Related Topics:
Botts dots - Eugene Botts - Caltrans - Los Angeles

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