No it’s not your eyes — there really are zigzag lines painted on the road. Drivers in Loudoun County, Va., west of the Washington Beltway, may find themselves encountering wiggly white lines on one or both sides of the roadway. Is this some kind of DUI test? What's going on?
Actually, it's an experiment in the rapidly growing county to slow motorists near busy crosswalks and bike crossings to increase pedestrian safety.
The oddly striped lines stretch 500 feet in either direction of the crossing, with the idea that the unusual markings will cause drivers to slow or brake reflexively. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) painted the zigzag lines near spots where well-traversed hiking and biking trails cross heavily trafficked and fast-moving roads.
So far, the “lightning bolt” looking lines have received mixed reviews. Critics say the lines seem only to confuse drivers, causing them not to know what to do, or that they're not enough to change already instilled behaviors in drivers.
But some cyclists and motorists interviewed by nbcwashingtonnews.com showed a positive response to the lines, believing that they will slow drivers and make them more attentive. VDOT has also installed speed meters at these crosswalks in order to monitor motorist speed — a smart move to let data prove or disprove the effectiveness of the zebra stripes.
Virginiadot.org says the zigzags will be a cost effective alternative to improving safety in an area trying to cope with a rapid transition from a rural county to an outer suburb of Washington, D.C. If the experiment goes well, more zigzag markings will be painted throughout the region.
A history of speeding, poor driver sightlines, and heavy traffic were factors in choosing where these first lines should be painted. Sources at ajc.com say the Washington and Old Dominion location was chosen because between 2002 and 2008, there were 23 accidents at the spots.
So whose “bright” idea was it to put white lightning bolts in the street?
According to WTOP.com, city planners in Europe and Australia have employed zigzag lines effectively to adjust traffic patterns. Kudos to VDOT officials for checking out the best practices from abroad and giving them a go here in the U.S.
The experiment in Loudoun will run for about a year. No word whether they'll add orange cones and turn it into a driver's ed course.
Nah, you're painting them too straight
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