Lane markings on concrete freeways can be hard to pick up – San Bernardino Sun

Q: Driving on the westbound 91 Express Lanes through Corona at sunset, or eastbound during sunrise, is very challenging due to the lane markings being obscured by tire tracks in the concrete. Apparently, someone drove in these lanes when the cement was new and it’s bad for a few miles — many tire tracks cross the lane lines and it’s hard to tell where to go at times. Are there any plans to correct this? Seems to be a fairly prominent hazard.

– David Fickes, Irvine

A: David, please thank your wife for (while a passenger) taking a nice photo of what you are talking about.

It’s unclear what those markings are — Honk would bet at least some are skid marks, which can be quite visible on concrete lanes. If he learns more from the Riverside County Transportation Commission about them, he will pass that along.

But a complaint that gets tossed into Honk’s electronic mailbag every now and then is about the lane markings themselves on various highways.

The ol’ Honkmobile has often found itself headed into the sun’s glare on a Southern California highway while cruising along concrete lanes that, well, aren’t very pretty and don’t contrast a lot with white lane markings.

In the long haul, concrete can make more sense than eye-pleasing asphalt because it requires less maintenance over the years, saving tax dollars.

“Thank you for bringing this question to our attention,” said Ariel Alcon Tapia, a spokesperson for the commission, which operates the 91 Express Lanes in Riverside County, where the 91 Freeway and the tollway have lanes of concrete.

“(It) does not provide the same contrast as asphalt does,” Tapia said. “We have added black paint around the striping in some areas to make the lane stripes stand out more. We will evaluate adding the same technique in that area the reader mentioned on the Express Lanes.”

Those added touches of black are called shadow markings, in traffic-engineer parlance, and are often used on concrete lanes and faded asphalt.

Honk asked Tapia to keep him informed so he could pass along updates to Honkland, and he said he would.