Staggered carriageway lane markings on motorways

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M19
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Staggered carriageway lane markings on motorways

Post by M19 »

I put this on the International roads thread as I find this outside the UK.

Ever noticed that lane markings on UK motorways tend to sit alongside each other in a “11” to divide three lanes or even “111” to divide four lanes kind of fashion, compared to countries such as the US where they are not aligned?

Anyone know why?
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c2R
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Re: Staggered carriageway lane markings on motorways

Post by c2R »

I don't know if this is the reason, but presumably it's easier to run a lining machine over long distances without worrying about matching the lines exactly with those for the adjacent lane?
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Re: Staggered carriageway lane markings on motorways

Post by Truvelo »

I always thought it was due to curves. Over here the lane on the inside of curves must have closer spaced markings to keep them parallel. In the US they obviously use the same spacing regardless of curvature which is why they end up out of sync.
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Re: Staggered carriageway lane markings on motorways

Post by Isleworth1961 »

Truvelo wrote: Thu May 13, 2021 11:40 I always thought it was due to curves. Over here the lane on the inside of curves must have closer spaced markings to keep them parallel. In the US they obviously use the same spacing regardless of curvature which is why they end up out of sync.
In the US they also do that with railway, sorry, railroad tracks. In the UK the rail joints on curves were aligned, and rail lengths adjusted so they created a regular rhythm over them. In the US the rail joints weren't (still aren't?) aligned, creating a random clatter over the joints. CWR had lessened the sound of the track joints, but I still enjoy the sound when there's a short length of non-CWR.
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Re: Staggered carriageway lane markings on motorways

Post by Bryn666 »

Truvelo wrote: Thu May 13, 2021 11:40 I always thought it was due to curves. Over here the lane on the inside of curves must have closer spaced markings to keep them parallel. In the US they obviously use the same spacing regardless of curvature which is why they end up out of sync.
We aren't anally retentive about the line/gap - it must be an appearance thing by lining crews to do this because there's no provision for it in the TSRGD and lining design packages leave you with horribly un-synced lines.
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Re: Staggered carriageway lane markings on motorways

Post by AndyB »

There is also an added benefit that it’s easier to read if markings of equal status are alongside each other rather than staggered.
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