Seoul City Expands High-Performance Lane Markings... Enhancing Road Safety at Night and in Rain

Expanded Coverage Starting This Year... Clear and Long-Lasting Brightness Even on Rainy Nights

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 23rd that it will expand the application scope of high-performance lane markings, which are bright and clear even at night and on rainy roads, after first introducing them last year. The city applied high-performance lane markings to 400 km last year and plans to expand this to 1,500 km this year.

Since announcing the introduction of high-performance lane markings (ambient curing type) in December 2020, Seoul first applied them in 2021 to lane sections (solid and dashed lines) in areas with deteriorated pavement. Starting this year, the application will be expanded to include letters, symbols, and emergency (excavation) zones longer than 50 meters.

Because the blue bus-only lanes have low visibility due to their color characteristics, making lane markings hard to see at night and during rain, a pilot project is underway to install road delineators within bus-only lanes to enhance visibility (6 areas, total 30 km), prioritizing low-lying and other visibility-vulnerable areas.

Additionally, together with the Seoul Institute of Technology, the city plans to revise the existing pavement marking specifications to better suit Seoul’s conditions and simultaneously establish new unit prices for the high-performance lane marking work, aiming to further improve pavement marking visibility.

The expansion and advancement of highly visible high-performance lanes will enhance driving convenience and traffic safety even in environments such as nighttime and rainy conditions, and are expected to play an important role in recognizing lanes by vehicle sensors, which are currently common in passenger cars.

Han Je-hyun, Director of the Seoul Safety General Office, said, “Following the introduction of high-visibility high-performance lane markings last year, Seoul plans to expand the application scope from this year to create a safe and comfortable road environment that citizens can feel.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.