Botts’ Dots – the raised, rumbly markers between lanes on California’s highways and freeways – are on their way out, with Caltrans saying it will no longer maintain or install them.
Named after Elbert Dysart Botts, the Caltrans engineer credited with the 1950s research that led to their creation, the dots spread across the nation as a way to stripe lanes.
The dots later become known for a different benefit: The powerful feedback when driving over them that could snap awake sleepy motorists.
But Caltrans is now taking a different route. After a half-century, federal transportation officials are encouraging California to dump them. Critics say the ceramic buttons aren’t reflective, don’t really help that much, mess up autonomous cars and don’t last very long.
“It’s an older technology that’s getting phased out,” said Gaspar Inzunza, a Caltrans maintenance supervisor in Orange County. “Having a newer technology completely replace it is ideal. It’s safer and more cost effective – everything across the board is a positive.”
For years, on all Caltrans freeways and highways, every 48 feet there was to be a raised reflective marker, then a four-inch-wide stripe topped with four Botts’ Dots, and then another raised reflector.
Now the remaining dots, as many as 20 million of them, will just slowly disappear over time from state highways and freeways, although some cities still use them.
Larry Zwart, a 69-year-old Huntington Beach resident, isn’t keen on them going away.
“I think it’s a poor judgment, given that they probably saved my life, and probably many others,” Zwart said.
Five years ago, he was heading home at about 65 mph on the I-405, cutting through Los Angeles County, belly full with a turkey sandwich.
“I apparently fell asleep, and the next thing I knew, I was awakened by the vibration of going over the Botts’ Dots,” Zwart recalled. “It was a heart-stopping experience.”
He had drifted two lanes and now figures he was headed toward leaving the road, or striking another car.
“I think most everybody has at some point had an experience where they were driving and drowsy,” he said. “You think you can push through it, and most of the time, you can.
“But I believe there are probably many instances similar to mine, for which there isn’t really much data or reporting, because there’s no tragedy that comes out of it,” Zwart said. “People just go on their merry way, and the Botts’ Dots have done their job.”
When first created, the life expectancy of a dot was 10 years. With today’s heavier traffic pulverizing their porcelain, dots rarely last more than six months. In recent years, they had been getting replaced only when another project called for workers to be out on the lanes.
A six-year Caltrans study that concluded in the early 2000s showed that accident rates weren’t significantly affected whether the dots were there or not. The state agency then spent years weighing the dots’ pros and cons before deciding they were no longer worth the maintenance effort – or the risk to workers.
Inzunza, the Caltrans maintenance supervisor, has seen in his eight years with the state technology improve, such as with thermoplastic striping that reflects more light in the dark and rain, and with plastic composite markers that stand up to traffic for years longer than the dots.
With the reflective striping and markers already in place, removing the dots improves reflectively overall, because then they are no longer obscuring part of the striping.
“If anything, you’d lose some of that rumble,” Inzunza said. “But there will still be a rumble people are familiar with. There will still be an audible bump, and actually more reflectivity.”
Driving at 60 mph, drivers can expect to feel two bumps a second going over the markers without the dots in place, Caltrans officials said.
Over the years, what motorists might not have seen, is that when slapping Botts’ Dots onto the roadway, workers were at times next to hustling traffic.
Catrans preferred to use a bucket truck, with the bucket riding just over the intended targets, an employee deploying an electric gun to apply 400-degree adhesive to the dot before plopping it onto the roadway. A California Highway Patrol car would follow, and then two Caltrans trucks, with gigantic cushions to absorb the blows of any wayward motorist, completing the caravan.
More often, lanes and ramps would be shut down, and an employee would push a cart along with a heater, gluing the Botts’ Dots to the ground.
Wth the dots out of the picture, maintenance crews will be in peril less often. “It’s a huge impact,” Inzunza said. “You multiply the time you’re out there by your chances of you getting hit, and this reduces (that) significantly.”
James Pinheiro, deputy director of operations and maintenance with Caltrans in Orange County, said the decision to phase out the dots came after lengthy considering of the needs of the motorists and the maintenance workers.
“We’re a big state – we’re one of the most heavily-traveled states in the country, so we have to be sure we’re making good decisions,” Pinheiro said.
Pinheiro pointed out that the dots can too easily break apart and spray debris toward traffic.
“You don’t want the motorists exposed to debris or flying pieces of anything,” he said. “We know Botts’ Dots break up earlier and don’t last as long, we don’t want that. A loose Botts’ Dot might be like half of a hockey puck – you just don’t want that when you’re driving down the freeway.”
Another major Caltrans concern: Self-driving vehicles may someday be common. Tests have shown that by covering up the striping with Botts’ Dots, the navigation systems of those vehicles can get confused, perhaps leading to drifting.
But many Orange County motorists love their Botts’ Dots.
Ken Gregory, 63 of Anaheim, said Caltrans is too focused on the future and is overlooking the people currently filling the roads.
“Which is more important, the driverless car or drivers? People or machines?” the retired policeman asked. “Are the driverless cars a fad, or not? Let’s take 10 years to figure it out.”
Cindy Perz, a 60-year-old software engineer who lives in Huntington Beach, said the dots have been helpful in keeping her in her lane on foggy days. She wonders if the reflective markers alone will guide people back into their lanes as effectively.
“Especially with all the distracted driving and things that go on, I’ve watched people hit the lane and pull back,” Perz said. “If you’ve got a chance of not hitting them because they’re widely spaced, like the markers might be, it will make a difference. It’s so easy to be distracted in the car these days.”
Laguna Niguel’s Jennifer Morris, 40, recalled a time when she was real tired and Botts’ Dots shook her to attention.
“They woke me right up, my heart was beating all fast,” she said. “I probably would have crashed against somebody or driven off the side of the road.”
She’s unsure whether the more spaced-out markers would do the same job, but said she’s willing to see.
All California motorists will see for themselves as well, willingly or not.
