A couple of days ago, I realised how bad the experience of driving in the dark, during a rain can be on CH roads. I’m specifically referring to the quality of road markings: they don’t seem to be reflective / fluorescent at all. I can barely make out 2-3 dashes ahead of the car. When the road surface is wet, especially with these smooth, sound-absorbing top-layers which are applied lately, I am seeing every irritation under the moon EXCEPT the side-markers and lane separators. Glare from oncoming traffic and street lightning are particularly irritating.

The "cat-eye" reflectors mounted on the side-barriers or plastic poles are also not doing much of a difference. And on highways they seem to be installed only on the barriers lining the right side of the road.

With the road works which seem to last until 6 months past eternity, and with all the diligence and effort which is invested in them, I find it extreamly annoying that the very last finishing touch (i.e. the markings) are not the best quality.

Anybody else who shares this impression? I’m especially interested in the views of people who cross the border and drive in two different countries under the same conditions (same time of day, same weather). Are the road markings any different in the neighbouring countries vs. CH? And cherry on top: if somebody who sees the inner workings of ASTRA / OFROU / USTRA or is knowledgeable about standards / contractors / products used across the country, please chime in.

Personally, I used to love driving at night, under any conditions, and while I admit I’m slowly but surely aging, but my sight is still decent.

And to pre-empt the useless comments:
– YES, the car’s headlights are ON
– YES, it’s a fairly modern car, with led headlights
– YES, the windscreen was de-fogged
– Unfortunately the phone was locking focus on the rain-drops on the windscreen, hence the blurry image. I was the passenger when I snapped the picture.

Apologies for whining about a 1st world problem and thank you everyone!

https://i.redd.it/c0znssymmrud1.jpeg

Posted by AltruisticMist142

3 Comments

  1. Where are you from? I’ve had this same experience in Germany for the last 30 years. lol

  2. I mean with the ridiculous speed limit here it feels anyway like walking so why bother for markings?

  3. My main issue is the “road works taking 6 months to eternity”. 🙂 But any time I bring that up here, people downvote it as if I said Matterhorn is an ugly little hill.

    My obviously subjective perception after having driven about 500k km in and out of Switzerland: never noticed a difference. The general roadquality is significantly better in Switzerland (driving culture too), so given the choice I would always choose to get caught in a storm in Switzerland than elsewhere.