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There are over four million miles of road in the United States, and driving on them on any given day is, by and large, like a game of cat and mouse. Evading speed racers and commuting kamikazes trying to shave, put on their makeup, eat a meal, or catch up on emails — all while behind the wheel — is hard enough. When you mix in confusing traffic signs or other engineering attempts to make driving easier (i.e., roundabouts or restricted crossing U-turn intersections), it's enough to cause anxiety in the hardiest of road warriors.
Cities and states do their best to help drivers navigate the highways that take us to and fro, all while keeping people safe in the seemingly endless stretches being upgraded, repaired, or repaved. Most of us are familiar with white stripes on the road that indicate where and when we can perform specific vehicular maneuvers. However, over the last several years, Kentucky, Texas, Wisconsin, and California have all been approved by the Federal Highway Administration to experiment with orange striping on roads in construction zones.
As recently as 2023, 898 people were killed and another 40,170 were injured in crashes that occurred in highway work zones, so safety is of utmost importance. The goal with these strikingly different stripe colors is to increase driver awareness in these areas while enhancing the safety of both drivers and road crews. Additionally, the high contrast of these stripes should be easier to follow in areas with frequent lane shifts and more visible at night and in inclement weather.
Orange stripes means you're entering a construction zone
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In 2021, a pilot program kicked off along Interstate 5 in northern San Diego County, California, as part of the Carlsbad to Oceanside Carpool/HOV extension, and was the first state project to use the orange striping. It shouldn't be a surprise that traffic in California is bad, with Los Angeles and San Francisco ranking in the top five cities in the U.S. with the worst traffic.
As such, California's approach needed to differ from those of other states with much less congestion. For instance, Kentucky fully replaced its yellow and white stripes with solid orange; Wisconsin did the same, using orange for edge lines and skip lines. Meanwhile, Texas used solid orange, thermoplastic lines in its construction zones. However, California sprayed temporary orange lines on either side of existing white stripes, or in the open space between them, to test the best method using different materials. Both are easier, faster, and cheaper to accomplish than replacing miles of existing white lines.
Survey results from April 2024 showed that 83.18% of drivers said the orange striping made them more aware that they were in a construction zone. It also showed that 72% of drivers slowed down after seeing the stripes, and almost 75% said they were definitely easier to see in the dark. The program will stay in effect until the construction project is completed sometime in 2025. Caltrans Public Affairs Manager Steve Welborn said drivers will continue to see the orange and white lines in other California road projects, as Caltrans hopes it will eventually become "standard practice throughout the state."
