White Lines Shown To Be Unnecessary In Centre Of Roads
Friday, 19. September 2014
Now here is something remarkably strange – and we’re not talking about my hair style! It’s white lines on roads! It would seem, following an investigation carried out by Transport for London (TfL) that white lines in the middle of roads cause drivers to drive faster.
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After re-surfacing three separate roads in London they decided not to re-paint the central lines (not just single lines but two parallel lines a couple of feet apart with cross hatch lines a couple of yards apart). As a result they noticed in every case a significant drop in speed. On the northbound Seven Sisters Road the average speed dropped by 2.5mph to 29mph and by 4.1mph on the southbound side to 28mph.
One theory was that no lines led to uncertainty and more caution as it was believed that drivers felt that with the white lines in place no one would encroach on their side of the road. Without lines separating the cars travelling in opposite directions it created more alertness and fear.
They also found that cars slowed down when cars were passing them in the opposite direction which confirmed an earlier survey in 2005. Having said that TfL will not be removing white lines from existing roads nor do they have any plans to not repaint the lines following re-surfacing even though it reduces the maintenance costs of roads. So I don’t know why it was ever bloody reported in the first place.
On the other hand, in the same report it was pointed out that an extra 900 miles of road capacity will be added to the road network over the next 7 years at a cost of £24 billion which is also to include the cost of re-surfacing! That’s good news then eh! Umm, think I’ll get a cup of tea! By Graham Hill
