Information AboutLane |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT LANE | |
| road transport | |
|
The word lane has two meanings: #The primary meaning is a portion of a paved Roadway which is intended for a single line of vehicles and is marked by White or Yellow lines. This article only elaborates on this meaning. #Less commonly, a narrow Road , usually lacking a Shoulder or a Median . The word is typically applied to roads in the countryside, but can also be applied to urban Street s like Drury Lane in London . Large cities in the U.S. State s of Nevada and Texas like to apply the term to many Arterial Road s. Also see Alley . In contrast to lane-less countries such as Egypt , most countries with a significant number of Motor Vehicle s mark lanes on their paved roads. Drivers are usually required to stay within a lane as much as reasonably possible. In many countries, a prolonged inability to stay in one's lane is considered to be a symptom of Driving Under The Influence and may lead to a Citation , or even an Arrest , for a Moving Violation . TYPES OF LANES
LANE MARKINGS ( Interstate 5 in the Central Valley of California ). Notice the yellow line on the left, the dashed white line in the middle, and the solid white line on the right. There is also a "rumble strip" on the shoulder which is not easy to see here.]] 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 Tunnel s. 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. Some Western Europe an 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. In all countries, private roads and Parking Lot s often ignore the rules altogether. 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. " Neutral " areas where traffic is prohibited are often painted with Stripe s. These areas are often called the Gore or gore point where they are formed by the merging or separation of lanes. Lane lines are usually striped with highly Reflective paint, often with tiny clear beads that reflect light straight back like a raindrop. White Reflector s, originally Glass and now more often Plastic , are sometimes embedded in between the stripes for improved nighttime Visibility . Frequently, the "back" of the reflectors are red (to indicate the wrong direction of travel for anyone who enters the wrong way). In Europe, the reflectors are typically known as Cat's Eyes . , where the lanes are marked only by Botts dots. The bridge in the distance carries a ''paseo'' (a type of dedicated pedestrian pathway unique to Valencia) over the roadway.]]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. In in the Central Valley ), and freeways in areas where it snows in the winter (since the snowplows would scrape off the Botts Dots ). MEDIANS OR CENTRAL RESERVATIONS Besides a painted line, lanes of traffic moving in opposing directions can also be separated by any of the following:
Such separations between opposing traffic are referred to as a median in American English and as a Central Reservation in British English . HISTORY For much of human history, roads generally did not have lane markings. This was probably because most of the time, pedestrians, equestrians, and horse-drawn vehicles all moved slower than 10 miles per hour most of the time, and thus everyone had adequate time to swerve around each other. Photos of the streets of any major city from the 19th century show all three types of traffic freely intermixed with each other. Another reason for not using lane markings was that they are expensive to maintain. However, when automobiles, trucks, and buses came into widespread use during the first two decades of the 20th century, it became common for drivers to get into head-on collisions, or to literally run each other off the road. Anyone who has ever driven a vehicle is aware that it takes long practice to develop a sense of where the edges of one's vehicle are in relation to the road's edges and to other vehicles. Without the feedback provided by lane markings, novice drivers in the early days often erred in favor of keeping closer to the middle of the road, rather than risk going off-road into ditches or trees. Unfortunately, this practice often left inadequate room for opposing traffic to go by. There are two people who have been credited with the invention of lane markings. In 1911, Edward Hines , the chairman of the Road Commission of Wayne County, Michigan was trying to figure out how to make the roads safer. He supposedly came up with the idea of painting stripes to separate lanes of traffic after riding behind a milk truck that leaked milk onto the center of the road, leaving a stripe. Meanwhile in California , June McCarroll , a Physician based in Indio , started experimenting with painting lines on roads in 1917 after she was personally run off a highway by an inexperienced truck driver. In November 1924, after years of lobbying by Dr. McCarroll and her allies, California officially adopted a policy of painting lines on its highways. A portion of Interstate 10 near Indio has been named the Dr. June McCarroll Memorial Freeway in her honor. By 1939 , lane markings had become so popular that they were officially standardized throughout the United States, and were soon in use all over the world. SEE ALSO |
|
|