Las Vegas ditched painted road lines because the desert heat kept making them vanish

The famously boiling hot town of Las Vegas, Nevada, ditched painted road lines because the desert heat kept making them vanish.

When you think of Las Vegas, you probably imagine neon lights, mega-casinos, and the Strip buzzing with supercars at night, but you probably don’t think much about the road.

Summer in Las Vegas is brutal because temperatures regularly hit 100°F (38°C) and beyond.

The desert city’s asphalt is designed with a high oil content to stop it from cracking under the sun, but the oil has a downside when it comes to trying to paint on it.

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Las Vegas ditched painted road lines because the heat made them vanish

When you travel around different US states, you wouldn’t be surprised to see some road changes between different states.

If you are interested in road markings, you may have realized that there aren’t any lines painted between the lanes on the roads in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This is because the desert heat makes the painted lines vanish.

The extreme heat means that the city’s asphalt is purposely designed to have a high oil content, so that it doesn’t crack under the baking hot sun.

However, when the asphalt heats up, the oil rises to the surface… and ‘eats’ the painted lines.

Introducing Botts’ Dots

Instead of constantly repainting the roads, the desert state turned to a smarter fix: raised pavement markers, nicknamed Botts’ Dots.

These ceramic or plastic bumps are embedded into the asphalt; they reflect headlights at night, so drivers can see lanes clearly even without paint.

They make a ‘thunk’ sound when you drive over them, meaning they have a built-in safety feature, and more importantly, unlike paint, they don’t melt away in the desert heat.

Botts’ Dots wouldn’t work everywhere, though; in colder states, snow ploughs would rip them right out of the road.

They also aren’t ideal in residential streets, crosswalks, or bike lanes, where they can be a hazard for pedestrians and cyclists.

But they are a durable solution to the unique problem faced by Vegas authorities.

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