They say we should concentrate on our driving. But when I’m rolling down the highway I see things that get my mind wandering to other topics. It’s often tangental and/or esoteric stuff, like whether deer really understand vehicles.
So as I was driving one of the many wiggly sections of US101 I became aware of how the paint stripes at the middle of right-hand bends tended to be worn away.
There’s a thing in auto and motorcycle racing called clipping the apex. A straighter line of travel tends to be faster, so drivers hug the inside of a sharp curve. Like this:
And there’s a thing in ordinary driving called freaking out because you think you might hit oncoming traffic on a tight right curve so you hug the inside of the curve.
Road stripes came to mind again today. The street to a scenic overlook where I like to spend parts of days was posted with notices of road painting. Ah, look how the stripe is worn down from people pulling in and out of the overlook. A couple of hours later the paint truck came by, followed shortly after by the sign/cone picker-upper guy. Not moving at racing speed, though.
Mmmmm, fresh stripes
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