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What are these lane markings you speak of? I must tell our local street department, they will be amazed to hear of it.

Probably Cat's Eye

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_eye_(road)

Yes. There also is a version that's set into a groove so that snow plows don't scrape them off.

It was meant to be a sarcastic comment. My town's lane markings are so bad they might as well not exist in most places. And when they do repaint them they seem to use the thinnest flat paint they can buy, at night in the rain they just disappear. I know heavy reflective lane marking paint exists because I've seen it elsewhere.

Oh man, you want to see what a difference lane markings make? Take a drive on a rainy night to Grants Pass Oregon from Crescent City CA on hwy 199. In CA the lanes light up like a Christmas tree. The moment you cross into OR the lane lines basically disappear and you are mostly driving blind hoping the oncoming traffic doesn't stray across a center line neither of you can see.

It's remarkable that a state where the rainiest months of the year coincide with some of longest winter nights in the lower 48 states uses such horrible road paints.

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