When did FDOT change their road paint?

[SirExor]

If we look back onto roads in Florida from 25 years ago, they used to be painted like this:


- Where as you can see there is a entire black line being painted inbetween the lines and also the lines seem to be more narrow and of a weaker paint than today ( Road reflectors also looks like they don't exist ), Here is a picture from today:



I'm curious about if anybody knows when FDOT started to paint their roads more like they are today. I know that they stopped painting them the old way by ca. the 1990's but it would be nice to know if anybody know the exact date.

[formulanone]

I think they're painted that way in the first photo because that section of I-95 was concrete; I'm not exactly sure black stripes were used consistently and entirely between each white dashed line. The follow-up contrasting stripe was common from from at least the '80s to today. Asphalt has a very light gray appearance due to the limestone and ground-up shells (or coral)  mixed with the tar.

I think the reflectors aren't used in the lane markings of Florida's very-high-traffic corridors, but they're nearly everywhere in the main arterials.

[jeffandnicole]

Many states use wider lines to help with their visibility.  And many states use lines with reflective paint to help with their visibility as well. There's probably no exact date, and it often has to do with when they put projects out to bid.  They probably started experimenting with various paints and line widths many years ago.

[SirExor]

I think they're painted that way in the first photo because that section of I-95 was concrete; I'm not exactly sure black stripes were used consistently and entirely between each white dashed line. The follow-up contrasting stripe was common from from at least the '80s to today. Asphalt has a very light gray appearance due to the limestone and ground-up shells (or coral)  mixed with the tar.

I think the reflectors aren't used in the lane markings of Florida's very-high-traffic corridors, but they're nearly everywhere in the main arterials.

Actually, they were painted like that on every road, for example:

This image shows no reflectors and also that very weak type of paint. Here's another image as well:


Here it seems like the paint is very poor.

[SirExor]

Many states use wider lines to help with their visibility.  And many states use lines with reflective paint to help with their visibility as well. There's probably no exact date, and it often has to do with when they put projects out to bid.  They probably started experimenting with various paints and line widths many years ago.

Yeah I think you're right. States like California use a similar way of painting today that Florida did till the early '90's, where as Florida has started to paint in a more similar fashion to what the rest of the eastern states do, with a more reflective paint.

[formulanone]

Are those screen captures from the Miami Vice episode where they used IMSA car footage?

(Props for that, if so!)

[realjd]

Nowdays they also sometimes use white outlined in black. I figure the choice depends on the FDOT district and material/supplier chosen for a given project.

There were (are?) some sections of I4 in Orlando that used California-style ceramic buttons as lane markers.

[UCFKnights]

I think they're painted that way in the first photo because that section of I-95 was concrete; I'm not exactly sure black stripes were used consistently and entirely between each white dashed line. The follow-up contrasting stripe was common from from at least the '80s to today. Asphalt has a very light gray appearance due to the limestone and ground-up shells (or coral)  mixed with the tar.

I think the reflectors aren't used in the lane markings of Florida's very-high-traffic corridors, but they're nearly everywhere in the main arterials.

I think reflectors are used on all state roads at this point, no?

[roadman65]

Nowdays they also sometimes use white outlined in black. I figure the choice depends on the FDOT district and material/supplier chosen for a given project.

There were (are?) some sections of I4 in Orlando that used California-style ceramic buttons as lane markers.

Those ceramic buttons were removed long time ago as they were on Colonial Drive through Orlando as well.   They were eventually removed on Colonial as well. I think, it was a test on those two roads only to see if Caltrans way would work here in the Sunshine State. 

Now of course is the I-4 ultimate going on which would have changed things anyway.

[lepidopteran]

Heh, thought I was the only one who ever noticed the addition of a space between the black and white lines.  I used to think of the continuous black-white as "Interstate Othello" .  Heck, I even noticed, during a tour of the Kennedy Space Center in the early '80s, that the runway where the Space Shuttle lands was striped this way as well (they used this runway when they didn't land it Edwards AFB in California and piggyback it back on a 747). This picture is dated 1981.


Meanwhile, at the risk of getting off-topic, I like how, in that very first picture posted, the BGS on the right reads "Orange Bowl" -- just plainly, as if it were another control city.  Granted, the use of brown signage for attractions like sports stadiums is probably newer than when that picture was taken.  In any event, the stadium has since been demolished, and the Dolphins now play at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, as does the namesake Orange Bowl game.

[formulanone]

I think they're painted that way in the first photo because that section of I-95 was concrete; I'm not exactly sure black stripes were used consistently and entirely between each white dashed line. The follow-up contrasting stripe was common from from at least the '80s to today. Asphalt has a very light gray appearance due to the limestone and ground-up shells (or coral)  mixed with the tar.

I think the reflectors aren't used in the lane markings of Florida's very-high-traffic corridors, but they're nearly everywhere in the main arterials.

I think reflectors are used on all state roads at this point, no?

I thought some high-traffic interstates don't, but looking at pics, they do. That's what I get for going off memory.