Double white lines on a two way street

[ap70621]

I was driving over the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge (NJ 94) from NJ to PA yesterday and noticed that below the bridge before it goes over the Delaware River it crosses over a street in the Columbia section of Knowlton Twp. The street which appears to be two way had a double white line instead of yellow. I was wondering if anybody knows other places in the US where this is the case. I thought maybe it was from before yellow was adopted as the color for separating opposing traffic, but surely the paint couldn't have lasted that long.

[realjd]

Is it on Google Street View?

[ap70621]

The road itself is not, you can see it in Streetview from the bridge and in aerial photographs. Apparently it is called Washington Street.

[realjd]

Found it. Interesting. No, I have not seen that anywhere else in the US other than private roads and parking lots. It doesn't look faded enough for it to be the old paint from before the standardization on yellow center lines - assuming NJ even used white center lines.

[agentsteel53]

I know there are some artifacts in that area (1964 US-611 shield, for example!) so it may very well be the case that some extremely durable white paint has lasted from before the standardization.

I do not know what year NJ went to the double-yellow.  I believe it was made a federal standard in 1961 (with white dotted line for a passing zone being changed to yellow in 1978).

I know some old alignments here in CA which have double-white, which is interesting because I believe CA was one of the first states to go to double-yellow, as early as the late 40s or so.  additionally, I know of an abandoned segment of 1940 concrete US-101 which is white-black-white; the black stripe being painted immediately inside the two white ones.  it is pretty dang faded, though.

[realjd]

I know there are some artifacts in that area (1964 US-611 shield, for example!) so it may very well be the case that some extremely durable white paint has lasted from before the standardization.

I do not know what year NJ went to the double-yellow.  I believe it was made a federal standard in 1961 (with white dotted line for a passing zone being changed to yellow in 1978).

I know some old alignments here in CA which have double-white, which is interesting because I believe CA was one of the first states to go to double-yellow, as early as the late 40s or so.  additionally, I know of an abandoned segment of 1940 concrete US-101 which is white-black-white; the black stripe being painted immediately inside the two white ones.  it is pretty dang faded, though.

If it was that old, wouldn't it have had a white striped center line between the two solid no-passing lines? Or did that convention go away before we standardized on yellow?

I found this neat chart (page 7) showing how each state marked center lines in the olden days:
https://ceprofs.civil.tamu.edu/ghawkins/MUTCD-History_files/MarkingColorEvolution.pdf

We use black stripes here in Florida regularly to increase contrast on both yellow and white lines. Does California never do that? I've never paid attention to it.

[agentsteel53]

If it was that old, wouldn't it have had a white striped center line between the two solid no-passing lines? Or did that convention go away before we standardized on yellow?

the 101 segment?  maybe.  the surviving striping is all of two feet long, so it is tough to get context.

[Alps]

I've been on that road and have photos in the queue. The answer is that this old concrete road is barely used anymore. If the paint hasn't lasted 40 years, the town has just painted right over it in the same color without questioning it, but there's no appreciable wear on the road. It's not like asphalt that has to be resurfaced every so often.

[ap70621]

Thanks for the info. Pretty neat to see a surviving example of that since I am not old enough to have been around when that was the normal.

[Alps]

Thanks for the info. Pretty neat to see a surviving example of that since I am not old enough to have been around when that was the normal.

There's more out West. I drove old Route 66 and there were multiple instances of double white lines on questionably maintained former roads.