Has anyone noticed traffic information painted directly on the streets outside of Mountain View?

December 27, 2004 12:45 PM

I was in Mountain View recently and noticed speed limits painted directly on the streets. Anyone else seen this kind of thing? [+]

A big "35" was painted on each lane of the street. It took me a while to realize that they were speed limits instead of road numbers. The latter are more common in my experience. For instance, on 1-70 through Columbus, Ohio there's a point where the road splits, and a big 1-70 is painted on the appropriate lanes. That made sense to me, but speed limits seem pretty much out of the norm and a little confusing.

Anyone familiar with other instances of speed limits or other meta-information incorporated directly onto a road surface? I've Googled for this and come up with some examples in England, but nothing else in the US outside of California.

posted by Jeff Howard to society & culture (9 comments total)

Does California law even recognize those as valid speed limit signs?

I know in Ontario, Canada painted-on-road limits aren't enforceable...
posted by shepd at 12:49 PM on December 27, 2004

A few blocks from my home there is

FIRE

HOUSE

painted in the road in front of a fire house. Is that meta-information?
posted by fixedgear at 12:57 PM on December 27, 2004

California (or at least the monterey/sf bay area) paints all sorts of stuff on the streets, compared to e.g. anywhere in new england. The ped xing and stop sign warnings are very useful, since they're often visible well before the crosswalk/stop sign is, and the painted-on stop sign guaranteed not to be hidden behind a tree or bush. I have never seen a painted-on stop sign without a normal sign as well. I suppose the use of such things also may have something to do with a lack of snow (maybe that's also why painted-on-road speed limits wouldn't be enforcable in Ontario).
posted by advil at 1:17 PM on December 27, 2004

A big "35" was painted on each lane of the street.
The speed limit is 25 mph if not marked. Maybe they would like the flow of traffic to stay at that speed. Because, “if you block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic by driving too slowly, you may receive a ticket.”
posted by thomcatspike at 1:32 PM on December 27, 2004

painted on sign sign...
Is that a big red octagon, or just the word "stop"? Things like "stop" or "slow" are good examples that I hadn't considered, though they're certainly meta. I guess along those lines are the arrows on a turn lane, or the turn lane strips themselves.

The "Fire House" thing is interesting. It's not about the road, but something near the road. A little like a red curb. I wonder if McDonalds can just paint "Big Mac" on the road in front of the Drive Thru...

I could be wrong about the speed, I think it was 35. I didn't take any pics, but I remember the numbers matching normal speed limit signs, which finally confirmed for me what they were trying to do.
posted by Jeff Howard at 2:07 PM on December 27, 2004

The City Council in Los Altos, California (which is very close to Mountain View) discussed, in February 2002, a "suggestion ... to paint the speed limit on the roadway" (see pdf file, page 9). In August 2002, the Council approved a motion (pdf file, page 5) to "install '25 mph' speed limit pavement markings at speed limit signs".

Speed limit pavement markings are also used in the cities of Encinitas and Berkeley.
posted by WestCoaster at 3:54 PM on December 27, 2004

Santa Cruz (same vicinity, once again) has speed limits painted on the street parallel to the signs. Here in NZ it's also common to see a white diamond painted on the street when a pedestrian crossing is coming up, and "stop" or "give way" on the street at intersections.
posted by tracicle at 1:48 AM on December 28, 2004

Lazy-ass christmas-time road painters recently made the speed limit in a small Scottish town 00 mph, by not bothering to put the smaller actual speed limit inside the 0s. Fools.
posted by bonaldi at 5:31 PM on December 28, 2004

Growing up in L.A. as I did, it seems odd to me that you wouldn't put the speed limit on the street.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:50 PM on December 28, 2004