I was driving through a roundabout
recently and as I made my way back to the regular road I saw something that
made me reflect on the changes we've had in road safety technology: Reflectors.
Yes, those reflectors they put in
the middle of roads to help us see the lines in the dark. They, or some version
of them, are going to become more important as we move to driverless car
technology. Driverless cars currently suffer from not being able to see lines
in the road during adverse weather conditions like rain and snow. Maybe the
next generation of reflectors will have transponders built in.
Then again, snow has been one of
the conditions that make road turtle reflectors problematic. Due to snowplows,
chains, and studded tires, which break and scrape off those lovely reflectors.
That's why another change has been
being installed recently, reflectors that are stuck to the road in shallow
divots they've carved out of the road. Apparently they have some expensive new
machine that gouges out a piece of pavement then sticks a reflector in the
depression. (And possibly creates an incipient expensive pothole to repair
later?)
In the northwest it's not working
so good. At least in the fall. The stretch of road I was driving on had the
divots all filled up with leaves and pine needles coagulated around the wet
dirt and oil washed into it. Guess what reflector I couldn't see?
The gouged-out divots collect
debris like a gap in your teeth. Little sesame seeds of detritus desperately in
need of a road flossing. Which perhaps will be the next piece of expensive
specialized equipment the city has to buy to add to their
gouger-reflector-sticker.
A road divot flosser.
Whatever happened to highly
reflective paint?
America, ya gotta love it.
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