IronTiger Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 When did Houston stop using Botts dots for marking lanes? I know Dallas has a bunch of 'em but they seem to have largely disappeared in Houston over the years. Gessner Road had them on the south side of Interstate 10. Somewhere on YouTube there's an old video of someone heading to Memorial City Mall that way. Crosstimbers Road (east of Shepherd but west of Yale) and Blalock Road (north of Long Point) have similar situations where they originally had two sections of concrete divided neatly by a row of Botts' dots but at some point they were stripped out for traditional striping with a new bicycle lane making both lanes slightly narrower. A small handful of smaller streets actually have WHITE dots in the middle even though they are two lane roads but they may have been just removed later (Emnora Lane near Gessner, Maxwell Lane near I-45). For a wider example, Sawyer near Memorial Parkway had them too. I'm guessing originally the outer lane of Sawyer wasn't actually supposed to be a driveable lane, today it's four lanes until both lanes suddenly merge into one for the ramp to Memorial Parkway. Most of the highways had them for normal lane marking, today they're only used for construction. When did this shift away from the dots start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specwriter Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 3 hours ago, IronTiger said: When did Houston stop using Botts dots for marking lanes? I don't remember when but I think I know why. They just don't stay put. I imagine the force of a 4000+ pound vehicle hitting them at 70+ mph eventually breaks them loose from the pavement. They are adhered with a very good adhesive but can only take so much. Cars and trucks are much heavier these days and we probably drive faster too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 When the north extension of the Red Line was initially put into service, I used to drive my wife nuts by repeatedly referring to the large, round concrete bumps that are used as a barrier between the railway tracks and the automobile lanes as "super-sized Botts' dots". She finally asked "Who is Bott, and where did he get all these dots?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted March 3, 2018 Author Share Posted March 3, 2018 5 hours ago, Specwriter said: I don't remember when but I think I know why. They just don't stay put. I imagine the force of a 4000+ pound vehicle hitting them at 70+ mph eventually breaks them loose from the pavement. They are adhered with a very good adhesive but can only take so much. Cars and trucks are much heavier these days and we probably drive faster too. Dallas still uses them and Caltrans used them up until last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 I last saw them installed about 15 years ago. Unless you count construction zones. They're being used on 288 in zones where the lanes have shifted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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