The real genius who came up with those small reflective squares mounted within those lines. On very dark nights, particularly when it’s raining, those things are life savers!
Bots Dots!
They’re called Bott’s dots after their inventor Herbert Dyson Botts who worked for the CA DOT back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. They used to be attached to the road surface with nails that would eventually pop out and flatten car tires. A student of Bott’s Herb Rooney invented a fast setting super strong adhesive that resulted in them becoming ubiquitous. Except in areas that get a lot of snow where the snowplows just scrape them up.
Here where I live almost every road has grooves cut into the outside lane’s right side to make an audible noise if you drift too far right.
I drift too far right a lot but this is a thread about driving not politics:^)