Driving without a clue

The Road Safety Marking Association (RSMA) is concerned about the dangers caused by the increasingly frequent absence of a clear white line down the middle of our roads. A survey of more than 1,000 miles of single-carriageway A-roads found that on average 14 per cent of road markings are completely worn out; and a further 15 per cent fall into the “amber” zone and immediately should be scheduled for replacement. Less than a third of lines reach the acceptable level of visibility.

There are countless places on Arran where this guidance is missing or almost obliterated. Motorists on the island know too well the hazards of driving on a night of bad weather along a snaking road that has no clear centre line. A white line picked up in the headlights and indicating the curves lying ahead is a vital aid to navigation. On an unmarked road,  drivers are truly ‘driving blind’, and statistics show the accident rate to be much higher.
 
Single-carriageway A-roads are almost always managed solely by local authorities, but the Highways Agency ratings for road markings have never been formally adopted by these authorities, so maintenance standards are, to say the least, patchy. The RSMA report stresses that the high risk of head-on collisions on single-carriageway roads means centre-line markings are critically important.

At a time when local authorities are struggling to save money, a request for white line maintenance may not be welcome – but it is not an expensive measure, when you consider that a pot of paint may save lives. The annual influx of tourists unused to narrow rural roads adds to the hazard. It is one that NAC should take seriously.