Well, probably totally O.T. but good for a bit of a 'down the pub'
discussion, I reckon.

So, my county council have put in place a 'let's throw everywhere into
gloom' policy to try to save money. They've done this by turning out all the
lighting on main roads, except where there's a junction or a roundabout, and
every second streetlight in residential areas. Apart from the obvious
personal safety and crime implications, I could just about live with this,
if there was some other method in place, for seeing where the road is, on
dark nights. I am particularly thinking of two roads that I travel quite
regularly. They are both quite 'big', and pass through open countryside, so
on a dark overcast night, they are as black as your hat, and very difficult
to see in 'normal' headlights. The main problem is that there are no cat's
eyes to speak of, and any painted road markings, such as white edge lines,
are either non-existent, or worn out. Recently, another stretch of dual
carriageway nearby, which has also had its lights extinguished, has been
'refurbished' in this respect, but although it is better than it was, I am
still unimpressed.

So here are the questions. Why don't modern cat's eyes work anything like as
well as the ones that we had 40 years ago. Back then, even on a foggy night,
the 'little better than a candle' lights on a Moggy Minor or Mini or Viva,
caused them to light up like runway lights for at least a quarter mile
ahead. The reflective ability of these modern ones seems ****-poor in
comparison. When they have been installed for a while, their efficiency
drops to next to nothing. Is this because they are plastic perhaps, and they
just get dirty and scuffed up, which of course the original glass ones, with
their built in self cleaning ability, didn't ?

Next question. Why is the reflective paint that they use to do road
markings, nothing of the sort, anymore ? Again, back in the day, road
markings used to light up really brightly. Now it just seems to be little
more than white paint, which looks what is best described as 'fair' when
it's newly done, but is useless when it's started to wear. Which brings me
to the last question of why does road paint no longer last more than a week
? Well, a couple of months maybe, but after this relatively short period,
it's totally worn out again, which it never used to be.

Unless something is done to improve the edge and centre-line visibility on
these roads that have now had their lighting turned off, I really fear that
sooner or later, perhaps in less than ideal weather, some poor inexperienced
kid of a new driver, is going to come unstuck, and kill himself and his
passengers ... |:-\

Arfa