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I've been driving along highways in Western Canada at night or dusk and I've been pretty surprised by the darkness on the roads. I'm not thinking of actual streetlights, as it doesn't really make sense in rural areas, but of cat's eyes, or road reflectors, that are common on many roads in the world.

These highways usually have little traffic, so the chances you can follow another car are low. Big turns are announced by signs but frequent turns with lower curvature are not really signaled and it appeared to me on many opportunities that these road reflectors were lacking and would make sense there.

I've been thinking about it and the main reason there might not be any could be the presence of wildlife at night, the main way to notice them is to see their eyes reflecting the car's lights (and animals wouldn't be noticed if there were road reflectors). It is quite popular in Canada that night driving is not recommended because you would encounter wildlife. This theory is only mine and very hypothetical.

Is there a reason why road reflectors are not used on roads in Western Canada?

Fato39
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Vince
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2 Answers2

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To confirm my speculations that snow is also a factor, I went to search a little bit to see past proposals in Western Canada to add reflectors and the existing ones.

Reflective markings in Canada's climate face many challenges. The reflective paints do not survive very well over the freeze-thaw cycle and the use of road salt and abrasives. And the reflectors do have problems with snow removal: they can be damaged from snow ploughs if too brittle, or they can damage the snow ploughs if they are too hard e.g. raised cast iron.

For example, in this article from TranBC (the provincial transportation department) regarding the difficulty finding appropriate paints for the roads, the challenges include

How long will each paint take the scouring of winter abrasives (aka crushed stone and gravel)? Will it stand up under the scraping of snow plow blades, what effect will heavy rain, snow or slush have, and how long will it be before the weight and friction of vehicles dull its shine?

While focusing on paints, the same issues are present for raised reflectors. In the comment section, the department mentioned in one comment:

We do use raised reflectors that are slightly recessed into the road surface to protect them from plough damage but it is still a challenge to have them last a whole season. Hope that this helps!

Alternatives such as roadside reflector posts and delineator signs, which are visible during snowfall (well, most of the times), do exist and are relatively common in BC and Alberta. But maintainance costs still exist (unfortunately, neither platics nor stickers do well over winter).

xngtng
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Yes.

Cost is the main one. Any road furniture costs money for installation and maintenance, and while the individual unit cost of cat's eyes is much lower than lighting, it still adds up, especially given the long distances in a country the size of Canada.

In the UK, a much smaller country, we have a significant percentage of roads with no lighting or cat's eyes, also due to cost

Rory Alsop
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