https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_eye_(road)) )
So common in the U.K., are they used on motorways in Switzerland (obviously not in Geneva or Vaud!) ?
Driving back from Lausanne on the motorway Saturday night in pissing rain, spray everywhere, could hardly see the road and the central line was blurry because of the spray...cat's eyes would have done the trick! Many accidents I'm sure would be avoided with them fitted on every road.
Mrs H was doing the same route on Saturday night.. Said the same thing..
Back from Lausanne around 20h .. Said she could hardly see and there were multiple accidents.. Eventually quit the highway around Morges and found that road just as bad and came back on again.
I was told they "can't because of the snowplows."
Yeah, me neither. Wonder how those Canadians manage it.
Cat's eyes are largely resistant to snow ploughs, as demonstrated in the UK (occasionally), Australia (yes, it snows there too) and Canada (snow is the normal ground cover in parts of Canada). However, snowploughable, recessed road markers exist and are marketed to allay any concerns on this front.
Local response to just about any suggestion for road safety improvement:
"If it were made safer people would not pay such close attention and then it would be more dangerous."
After all these years here I still can't wrap my head around that logic.
Instead I don't drive after dark/near school yards or playgrounds/until the road is plowed/insert your traffic accident waiting to happen here.
There is the old story of a little Swiss village, where there was a sharp bend, very dangerous especially at night and in the rain. A newcomer almost had an accident and angrily addressed the local authority. He said there ought to be a speed limit at the very least. "Well, you know," he was told, "there was one for many years, plus one of those fancy bend warning signs, but nothing ever happened, so we removed it."
Too expensive for Switzerland
We invest the money in heating the bridges
You should try driving round a town in the UK where they've put those goddam halogen street lights in. Can't see bugger all
In the middle double line of the gotthard tunnel they are used. Obviously it's meant to make noise and vibrations too. Anyway in the UK old regulations impose their installation, here nobody thought it was worth the cost it seems. I noticed some new paint stripes are also much more reflective especially with LED/xenon lights for some reason so maybe there are other solutions coming up that are just as good and may be cheaper.
I don't know about the cateyes in the Gotthard but they make loads of white lines in a manner that there's a rattling sound if you get on them.
And in case nobody noticed, there are cateyes in the sidepoles which are every .... aSwissinUS will tell you how many .... meters.
And if the street leads through a forest there are green ones on the side too, around here at least. I got the impression those are more for the animals to make them stay away from the road if a car comes at night though.
Don't you know the Swiss are superb drivers, they don't need any help, there is always someone or something to blame for their crap driving.
I do find it best to see where the actual road is rather than the sides of it. I have spotted these fluorescent poles, but they are not as effective as well as distracting the driver's eyes from where they really should be focused, i.e. on the road.
I ́m with you. They started putting those cat eyes all over the roads in the Scottish Borders and I love it. So much easier to see where the road is, even in bad weather (and I am not particularly good at driving at night)
The orange road markings they put out when doing road works...
About as useful as a paper umbrella...
Far as I know the UK is the only European country that uses them. Never seen them on the French motorways and we could certainly have used some when we came back from the UK a few years ago when it was blowing a blizzard.
Same logic is applied to justify not wearing a cycle helmet or a ski helmet.
Yep. Totally invisible in the dark and wet.
Google "risk compensation", there is something to the thinking. However I wouldn't claim it applies to cats eyes.
I don't use either.
As for cats eyes, I find them dangerous for motorcyclists.
Tom
When these first came out in the UK in the early 90s they were called "rumble strips" and were to be found between the inside lane and hard shoulder of a motorway, the idea behind these was to "shake awake drivers who have fallen asleep at the wheel, warn drivers they are too close to the edge when not concentrating or when the road markings are hidden by frost or snow".
Wee FYI, the cats eye (also known as reflective road studs) was invented in the 1930s by Percy Shaw OBE...a Yorkshireman.
The fact that Swiss the motorway system is also completely unlit outside of major urban areas also makes for scary moments, the UK, again, has a great system of colour coding their cats eyes for easier reading and understanding of the motorway layout in the dark...
* White studs mark the lanes or the middle of the road.
* Red studs mark the left edge of the road.
* Amber studs mark the central reservation of a dual carriageway or motorway.
* Green studs mark the edge of the main carriageway at lay-bys and slip roads (called on or off ramps in the US)
* Green/yellow studs indicate temporary adjustments to lane layouts, e.g. where road works are taking place.
* Blue studs can occasionally be seen and are for the use of the emergency services.
Some may think these are too many to take in, however if you have learnt to drive in the UK you get to learn them all off by heart for your driving test theory part, so not such a big deal!
Sadly, I don't believe we will see such things on Swiss motorways in the near future , cost being the reason.
Cost would be the last reason for the Swiss not to install cat's eyes. Any country that can heat its bridges and dig up and replace its motorway pavement several times per year, mostly during the summer holidays, can afford a few Rappen for road markings.