Lethal road marking practice, be warned

[jellywrestler]

I was at the pub tonight, designated driver not having a beer sadly, and the roadmarking crew turned and painted the arrows outside.
What I thought was overspray turned out to be glass bead blasting particles I'd bet thown over the paint and scattered some distance each side.
The road was literally like ice to walk on, these glass beads are 0.4mm or 16 thousandths of an inch in diameter.
Some cones were down to protect the paint I assume.
An hour or so later the guys turned up to pick the cones up. I asked whether they were going to sweep the beads away and they said no, said the wind will do that. It's a calm night here in Lower Hutt and despite the worker realising I wasn't happy with it and trying to sweep it up with his day-glo jacket it only spread the beads further .
Normally I would expect this to overspray from paint, not one of the most slippery things you can come across so be warned.
I rang *555 twice and begged them to get a cop down to have alook at it, they would only advise the council, I then went to the police station and finally they radioed a car to have a look after the next job or so....
BE WARNED THIS PROCESS WILL DROP MOTORCYCLISTS WITHOUT ANY WARNING.

Two Ironies, one is that they're probably putting the beads in to make the paint less slippery.

(This was on the corner of jackson st and victoria st petone outside the speights ale house
The other is the company is called 0800SAFE4U)
I am going to follow it up tomorrow

[trailblazer]

cheers mate. Thats something i didnt know they put in road paint. I will keep my eyes open for it up this way.

[steve_t]

I don't think the glass beads would be to make it less slippery. I reckon it's probably to make the paint more visible at night ie reflective beads.
Either way, it's a dangerous practice. They should revisit the markings after the paint dries and hose down the area to get rid of the excess beads

[baptist]

Nice one! little marbles all over the road... muppets.

[Metastable]

They do that here too. I almost lost it on one of those and I wasn't even moving. It was a brand new dead end road that was about to be opened as a highway on-ramp, and these kids were stunting, so I stopped along the edge to watch. I was standing there, then all the sudden my foot just gave out.... but then caught again. I still don't know how I didn't drop the bike. I got off the bike and couldn't believe how slick that stuff was. In this case they had just put down a line as opposed to an arrow, but I couldn't see the stuff like you can in those pictures. I only saw what it was once I got off the bike and had a close inspection.

[CookMySock]

Why aren't road crews specifically trained about just how dangerous their actions can be to motorcyclists (or any motorist for that matter.)

Perhaps will take a few more expensive claims before they wake up.

[Mom]

I'm loving the slogan on the side of the truck myself. What a joke!

[Owl]

There's a lot of money in road marking and even more by cutting corners

[oneofsix]

To Paraphrase (apologises to DangerousBastard)

"road crews are specifically trained about just how dangerous their actions can be"
can't you just see that on a Tui billboard?

Thanks for the warning about the roadmarking practice jellywrestler.

road crews removed the surface in two strips right across the slip road coming off SH1 at Parm, by the RSA. Took two days to get the warning signs up. Today they have the bobcat there with the tar stripper attachment so expect it to be rough tonight. At least this lot aren't called safe4u.

[scumdog]

Why aren't road crews specifically trained about just how dangerous their actions can be to motorcyclists (or any motorist for that matter.)

Because some are a bunch of stoners who toke up while working as nobody pays any attention to them in the middle of the night...?

Don't ask.....

[Ocean1]

couldn't believe how slick that stuff was.

Microspheres, slicker'n snot. Not an obvious DG issue, though, so it won't be mentioned in their procedures. Not that they get actually read anyway.

I am going to follow it up tomorrow

Sick 'em dude, it's nasty stuff to leave lying around.

[marty]

BE WARNED THIS PROCESS WILL DROP MOTORCYCLISTS WITHOUT ANY WARNING.

Two Ironies, one is that they're probably putting the beads in to make the paint less slippery.

1 - there's plenty of warning. the paint is brand new, and there's a powdery substance all over the road. visible by day, reflective at night. so it will drop you if you don't notice it.

2 - it's mainly for visibility reasons - not anti-slip

[Deano]

1 - there's plenty of warning. the paint is brand new, and there's a powdery substance all over the road. visible by day, reflective at night. so it will drop you if you don't notice it.

2 - it's mainly for visibility reasons - not anti-slip

Yes visibility. The Council road engineer just came and showed me a sample board - probably a little grippier than just white paint, but not by a large amount.

The overall contractor responsible has been asked to get their subbie back to clean up and not do it again. It was poor practice. Usually the beads are applied through a nozzle which follows the paint nozzle.

[Metastable]

FYI - I couldn't see it when my foot slipped. I had to get off the bike and inspect the ground.... that's when I saw what was going on. It just blended right in.... but yes it was a new set of lines.... but if you don't know any better...

[steve_t]

You've gotta think that, from a safety point of view, it'd be better to just mix the beads in with the paint. Sure, the paint won't be quite as reflective but is the slight increase in visibility worth the risks of sprinkling the beads everywhere?