Went for a jog tonight in the light rain. Hit some recently painted crosswalks and almost busted my butt - slick as ice! I knew road paint could be slick - often cautious on my motorcycle. But this was super slick. Anyone ever go down from hitting slick road paint?
I would never admit to anything like that. But, yes... fallen on my butt more than once on wet painted concrete.
I had something like that happen a few months ago. It was a sunny dry day and I came to a complete stop at an intersection. Went to put my foot down and felt my foot slide out from under me almost dumping the bike. I looked down and noticed a white paint stripe that had some real glittery shiny surface to it. I wonder how many other riders have fallen over in that spot. Real hazard.
FacePlant discussion from a first hand mishap: Glass Powder, Fog Lines and an epic high side http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=854137 --Bill
Yabutt, wasn't that from LOOSE powder left over from painting, and not the lines themselves? And yes, the plastic-y type lines can be slippery when wet. Though I never actually dropped on one.
Yeah. THey are especially bad when they are NEW. I drifted the rear of my Miata sideways pulling off a campus road earlier this week because the crosswalk paint was two days old. This was in the DRY and I wasn't even accelerating hard (it was very cold fwiw) but when the rear tires crossed the lines under power they snapped sideways! It was like being on ice.
Slick wet paint stripes - last week I spent three days in court as a juror in a case in which someone was bringing suit against the company that painted the stop-bar in a parking lot. Plaintiff claimed injuries from slipping on the rain wetted paint and claimed negligence on the applicators part. Interesting case, very educational. Have I ever slipped on this stuff? Yes. And my tires have let go on rain wetted paint stripes. Gotto be carefull. (The plaintiff never proved negligence)
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.
They used that stuff all over the roads in winter when I lived in Seoul. Nothing like killer traffic combined with oily, wet, cold roads to make for some "interesting" riding conditions!
I dont remember the lines always being this slick.... it seems like a few years ago they switched from just painting on the lines to some new process that does not look like just paint, it is really slick and it also is raised, some kind of material that gets bonded to the road surface.
It does seem to be a mistake in road construction. Today they are raised, slicker and wider. Here is one petition I found via Google search on the subject: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/238/548/245/convert-all-pavement-markings-to-anti-skid-paint/
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....
Most road markings that are expected to be driven on ( crosswalks, turn arrows, even the dashed line between lanes on some highways) aren't paint, they're torched down plastic, supposedly for better wear resistance (So they have to maintain them less. I'm not sure this is strictly working on busy roads... I digress.) But even paint, after several years of build-up, can become a raised, solid, slick surface. I'm told that the application directions for crack sealant are a) not parallel to direction of travel, and b) no wider than two inches. Yeah, I never see either of those violated... Then seal coat, which is becoming a popular parking lot maintenance technique around here. We all know about chip seal- throw down a layer of tar/sealant, sprinkle small gravel on, sweep off excess (or hey, let the traffic do that!) which is bad enough, but recently more companies are just doing a sealant layer. OK when dry- one big skating rink when wet.
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.
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
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.
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.
