PAVEMENT STRIPING AND MARKINGS

 

STRIPING

Street striping is actually referred to as a Line Marking in the traffic engineering world.  Longitudinal lines run parallel with the roadway and provide guidance by defining the limits of safe travel.  In other words, they make up the lanes and direction of travel (such as lane lines, center lines, and edge lines).  Lane lines generally consist of yellow stripes which delineate the separation of opposing traffic flows (Double Yellow or Skip Yellow) or white stripes which delineate the separation of traffic flows in the same direction (Skip White, Turn Lanes, or Edge Lines).

The other type of line markings are described as transverse lines.  They run perpendicular to the roadway (such as limit lines and crosswalks).

The Traffic Operations section maintains all the street striping within the City.  Currently, there is approximately 220 lane miles of white striping and 160 lane miles of yellow striping.  Some striping is repainted every year.  It takes approximately 5 years to cover the entire City.  At that time, we begin the painting cycle all over again.

With regard to crosswalks, the Traffic Operations section maintains approximately 130 intersections with crosswalks which equates to about 50,000 square feet of painted surface.

 

PAVEMENT MARKINGS

Pavement markings are used to communicate information regarding turns, lane drops, speed limitations, approach warnings (Stop Ahead, Ped Xing, Signal Ahead, etc.,), lane restriction (Bike Lanes), and limit lines such as crosswalks and Stop or Yield lines.  The Traffic Operations section maintains approximately 3,500 pavement markings located in the City.  The majority of the markings are Stop Bars and Legends.  It is our goal to refresh each one annually.

 

School Zones and Crosswalks

There are approximately 35 schools in the Redding area.  Each street that is contiguous to a school will have special yellow crosswalks and pavement markings such as Slow School Xing or or Slow School Zone.  The Traffic Operations section will maintain each of these, which number approximately 200, on an annual basis.