Driving by Braille
In the 1950s, there were just lines seperating the lanes on the freeway. Often, these weren't refelctive enough; they virtually disappeared in the rain and the paint wore thin every few months, having to be repainted and risking the lives of Caltrans workers. Elbert Botts was in charge of the department that was to come up with solutions for this probelm. He came up with a round or square shape in plastic, polyester or ceramic domes that come in several colors. The most common is white, but they also come in amber, blue and red.
Botts always claimed that coming up with the "dots" (as they came to be called) was the easy part. The challenge was coming up with a way to attach them to the road. At first, Botts favored secring them with metal spikes. Unfortunately, the domes quickly wore off, leaving the dangerous spikes behind. Eventually, they settled on a powerful glue.
By 1966, drivers were being saved from drifting in their lanes by the rat-tat-tat of hitting the dots. Elbert Botts, howeverm was already driving on that big highway in the sky, having passed on in 1962. The markers however, are still referred to as "Botts' Dots."
posted by kuaptic. @ 9:11 AM
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