Description
The standard for striping colors on road in the US is that yellow stripes separate opposite traffic going in opposite directions, while white stripes separate lanes going in the same direction. While this is enforced mostly on public highways, why not encourage the same standard on private property starting with municipal projects? This road at the Anne Gordon Center was just opened and does not use the standard color. The correct color would reduce confusion among drivers.
3 Comments
Acknowledged City of Raleigh 3 (Verified Official)
Closed City of Raleigh 3 (Verified Official)
Per Public Works, Construction Management Division: The parking area for the Anne Gordon Center and the ball fields does not use centerlines except at the intersection with the park road. A stop bar and white centerline defines the exit lane. However, it is not uncommon for stop bars to be used without a centerline to define an exit lane. Maybe the confusion could have been avoided by not utilizing a centerline at this location.
The industry standard is to use white lines in parking areas. The linear foot cost for a few yellow centerlines at exits in a parking area would be substantially higher than the linear foot cost of the white parking space lines. With this project we thought the added cost of yellow lines for parking lot exits is not necessary because of the low speeds that should be followed.
Joe Johnston (Registered User)
Thanks for the comment. I do believe that consistency is very important for drivers, and since driving is not very fault tolerant, we should do everything to promote consistency. So that when a driver sees a yellow line, they know that they must stay to the right of it, whereas a white line indicates that a driver can cross to the other lane. I think we should encourage this even in parking lots and that the city should give the example.
Thanks,
Joe Johnston