I could not agree more with your comments in the latest issue, reference road markings. Last week we did a round trip from Chester to Edinburgh and back. The return journey, in darkness and rain, on the M6 and M56, was an absolute nightmare. For many miles, the white line markings and cat’s eyes were virtually invisible. So much so, that I opted not to enter into the third lane, it was just too dangerous. The risk of just dropping a wheel off the outside lane and being dragged into the central barrier was too great. Sure enough, we came across just such an incident on the M56, a car had been dragged into the central barrier. Keep up with the good work.
Mike Case

Thanks Mike. I’m glad to report that my approach to the Highways Agency received a positive response, and that I have established that improvements and repairs to both the cat’s eyes and while lining on the A47 are to be commenced early in 2015. Not as a result of my initiative, I must stress, but no doubt somebody either undertook an assessment as a result of other complaints or reports. It will be interesting to see what replaces the worn-out cat’s eyes and whether they will be solar powered, as seems likely, for better visibility. As somebody has recently pointed out to me, the original cat’s eyes were self-cleaning, in that as they were depressed by traffic into their rubbers casing, the faces of the reflectors were wiped clean. I don’t think this is the case with later hard plastic cased reflectors, which might well account for their loss of reflectance with the passage of time.
Doc