Beware of Road Paint

[LuciferMutt]

Originally Posted by Offcamber

Tar snakes (crack filler) are just as bad.....even on hot days they get slimy and I can feel my back tire walk about a bit.. It can be a bit unnerving when you see a large patch of it in a corner....

In general I find tar snakes to feel unnerving, but they are actually somewhat predictable whereas plastic road markings are not. Some are slick as hell and some are not, and you never know when or where. Tar snakes almost always make the same "squirm" but it feels manageable if you ignore it.

[manfromthestix]

Originally Posted by 60wag

At work we have an obsessive focus on safety. Since practically no injuries occur in the building any more, the attention has turned to slips and falls in the parking lot. With the ice and snow season upon us, they decided that dousing the lot with mag-chloride deicer must make things safer. Now the lot is asfault and is regularly sealed with shiny thick sealer. Add to that repainting the parking lines and cross walks. Now we have a stupid slick surface that is coated with a oil-like diecer. Walking across the lot now resembles a hockey rink despite the lack of ice - the crosswalks are a liability case waiting to happen.

This is a classic !!! Talk about irony - the safety folks causing hazards!

We had an incredibly warm couple of days here this weekend after several weeks of temps down in the low 30's. When the warm, moist air moved in over the colder ground, literally everything became soaked with dew/condensation. The front porch on our house is painted concrete and even that had beads of water on it, even where completely covered by the roof. All the roads were very slick, especially all the paint lines and cross-walks. Add to that a nice layer of salt and sand laid down by VDOT after several recent storms and things were very slick. I was extremely watchful when riding this weekend, but thrilled to be out in mid-January!

Doug

[out rider]

I heard that the reflectiveness of the lines is because there are tiny glass like beads used in the paint and that is what contributes to them being slippery.

[jesionowski]

Originally Posted by Offcamber

Tar snakes (crack filler) are just as bad.....even on hot days they get slimy and I can feel my back tire walk about a bit.. It can be a bit unnerving when you see a large patch of it in a corner....

On a trip up to Lake Superior this summer the tar snakes just as I crossed over from Wi to Michigan got really bad. And it was dry hot weather. I would hate to think what they would be like wet and cold. Gebus these things were like an inch thick and a foot wide, small speed bumps.