Bainbridge Islanders,
You may have seen that street striping began this past week on the island. Stripe Rite, the City’s contractor, will paint stripes and other traffic markers on approximately 80 lineal miles. This is over half of the 140 lineal miles of Bainbridge Island’s streets and roads. The striping will take about 6 to 8 weeks and cost $177,936.
Painting lines and markings on streets is as not as easy as it seems. You probably have seen the funny pictures of street striping gone wrong: stripes not in a straight line, misspelled words, stripes over road debris such as tree limbs or worse. A true confession -- earlier in my career when I worked in a Public Works Department, I “helped” the street maintenance workers paint street markings, and I tripped over a can of paint. It spilled all over the road. It was a mess. They politely asked me to never help again.
Streets are striped for safety purposes and serve as guides for drivers. Due to new technology, street stripes are more important than ever. Stripes on the road are key for vehicles equipped with various types of lane-keep assist features, technology that relies upon cameras to keep cars in the center of the road. This is a fundamental step towards the future of completely driverless vehicles. Painting lane markings does not attract that much attention, but it is an important safety step and a cornerstone towards autonomous vehicles.
Drive safe this week!
