Anyone who has driven in Washington knows that it can be tough to see the road when it’s raining , especially at night. Reflectors can go a long way in helping with that.
Recently, entertainment account Seattle Submissions posted a video to social media of a dark road on a highway on a rainy night, captioned “can someone in WA tell why our freeways don’t have reflectors?” The video received over 10,000 likes on Instagram, and nearly 70,000 views on X, formerly known as Twitter.
But are they really that uncommon across the state? And if so, why doesn’t the state install more?
Most WA highways use reflective paint
According to Washington State Department of Transportation spokesperson Tina Werner, the state employs a variety of different methods for making lane stripes visible at night. That includes reflectors, although they’re not the most common method.
“Paint is the most common and cost-effective marking material,” Werner said in an email to McClatchy. “To enhance the visibility of our pavement markings – lane stripes – at night, glass beads are surface applied and embedded into the paint. Vehicle headlights reflect off the beads making the paint more visible.”