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A cat's eye or road stud is a
retroreflective A retroreflector (sometimes called a retroflector or cataphote) is a device or surface that reflects radiation (usually light) back to its source with minimum scattering. This works at a wide range of angle of incidence, unlike a planar mirror, ...
safety device used in
road marking Road surface marking is any kind of device or material that is used on a road surface in order to convey official information; they are commonly placed with road marking machines (also referred to as road marking equipment or pavement marking eq ...
and was the first of a range of
raised pavement marker A raised pavement marker is a safety device used on roads. These devices are usually made with plastic, ceramic, thermoplastic paint, glass or occasionally metal, and come in a variety of shapes and colors. Raised reflective markers, such as ...
s.


Description

The cat's eye design originated in the UK in 1934 and is today used all over the world. The original form consisted of two pairs of
retroreflectors A retroreflector (sometimes called a retroflector or cataphote) is a device or surface that reflects radiation (usually light) back to its source with minimum scattering. This works at a wide range of angle of incidence, unlike a planar mirro ...
set into a white rubber dome, mounted in a
cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impur ...
housing. This is the kind that marks the centre of the road, with one pair of cat's eyes showing in each direction. A single-ended form has become widely used in other colours at road margins and as lane dividers. Cat's eyes are particularly valuable in fog and are largely resistant to damage from snow ploughs. A key feature of the cat's eye is the flexible rubber dome which is occasionally deformed by the passage of traffic. A fixed rubber wiper cleans the surface of the reflectors as they sink below the surface of the road (the base tends to hold water after a shower of rain, making this process even more efficient). The rubber dome is protected from impact damage by metal 'kerbs' – which also give tactile and audible feedback for wandering drivers.


History

The inventor of cat's eyes was Percy Shaw of
Boothtown Boothtown is a suburb of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, which falls within Town Ward, one of the 17 wards of Calderdale. Its history was dominated by the mills of the textile industry. Rawson's Mill on Old Lane is now disused and designat ...
, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. When the tram-lines were removed in the nearby suburb of Ambler Thorn, he realised that he had been using the polished steel rails to navigate at night. The name "cat's eye" comes from Shaw's inspiration for the device: the
eyeshine The ''tapetum lucidum'' ( ; ; ) is a layer of tissue in the eye of many vertebrates and some other animals. Lying immediately behind the retina, it is a retroreflector. It reflects visible light back through the retina, increasing the light a ...
reflecting from the eyes of a cat. In 1934, he patented his invention (patents Nos. 436,290 and 457,536), and on 15 March 1935, founded Reflecting Roadstuds Limited in Halifax to manufacture the items. The name ''Catseye'' is their trademark. The retroreflecting lens had been invented six years earlier for use in advertising signs by Richard Hollins Murray, an accountant from
Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...
and, as Shaw acknowledged, they had contributed to his idea. The blackouts of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
(1939–1945) and the shuttered car
headlight A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the device itself and ''headlight'' is the term for ...
s then in use demonstrated the value of Shaw's invention and helped popularise their mass use in the UK. After the war, they received firm backing from a
Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ag ...
committee led by James Callaghan and
Sir Arthur Young Colonel Sir Arthur Edwin Young (15 February 1907 – 20 January 1979) was a British police officer. He was Commissioner of Police of the City of London from 1950 to 1971 and was also the first head of the Royal Ulster Constabulary to be styled ...
. Eventually, their use spread all over the world. In 2006, Catseye was voted one of Britain's top 10 design icons in the Great British Design Quest organised by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and the Design Museum, a list which included
Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...
,
Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
, Supermarine Spitfire, K2 telephone box,
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...
and the
AEC Routemaster The AEC Routemaster is a front-engined double-decker bus that was designed by London Transport and built by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and Park Royal Vehicles. The first prototype was completed in September 1954 and the last one ...
bus.


Local practice


United Kingdom and Hong Kong

In the United Kingdom, different colours of cat's eyes are used to denote different situations: * White is used to indicate the centre line of a single carriageway road or the lane markings of a dual carriageway. * Red and amber cat's eyes denote lines that should not be crossed. Red is used for the left side of a dual carriageway, while amber is used for the right side of a dual carriageway. * Green indicates a line that may be crossed, such as a slip road or lay-by. These units are not very visible in daylight and are generally used in conjunction with traditionally painted lines. Temporary cat's eyes with just a reflective strip are often used during motorway repair work. These are typically day glow green/yellow so they are easily visible in daylight as well as in darkness; they can then be used on their own for lane division. Also seen during motorway repair work are plastic traffic pillars that are inserted into the socket of a retractable cat's eye rather than being free-standing. These are often used in conjunction with two rows of the temporary cat's eyes to divide traffic moving in opposite directions during motorway roadworks. Solar-powered cat's eyes known as solar road studs and showing a red or amber LED to traffic, have been introduced on roads regarded as particularly dangerous at locations throughout the world. However, shortly after one such installation in
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
in the autumn of 2006 the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
reported that the devices, which flash at an almost imperceptibly fast rate of 100 times a second, could possibly set off
epileptic fit An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or neural oscillation, synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much o ...
s and the
Highways Agency National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a State-owned enterprise, government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving Roads in England, motorways and major A roads in England. It al ...
had suspended the programme. The suspension appeared to have been lifted by 2015, when LED cat's eyes began to be installed along newly re-paved sections of the A1 and A1(M) in County Durham and
Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newc ...
. Flashing blue LED cat's eyes were demonstrated on the TV show ''Accident Black Spot'', aired on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
on 19 December 2000, which alert the driver to potential ice on the road when a low enough temperature, provisionally set at , is reached. Proposed enhancements in 2013 were to change the standard white light to amber for four seconds after the passing of a vehicle, or red if the following vehicle is too close or traffic ahead is stationary.


Ireland

In Ireland yellow cat's eyes are used on all hard shoulders, including motorways (neither red nor blue cat's eyes are used). In addition, standalone reflector batons are often used on the verge of Irish roads. Green cat's eyes are used to alert motorists to upcoming junctions. There are limited installations of actively powered cats eyes, which flash white light, on particularly dangerous sections of road such as the single carriageway sections of the N11.


United States

The closest equivalent in the United States is the Stimsonite retroreflective raised pavement marker. Stimsonite markers are made out of plastic, not metal, and were first invented in 1963.


New Zealand

In New Zealand, roads are generally marked with white reflectorised cat's eyes every 10-metres along the centreline, occasionally on high volume roads; both Botts' dots and cat's eyes are used (typically there is one cat's eye followed by three Botts' dots places in every ten-metre stretch of highway). The colour pattern on New Zealand roads is white or yellow cat's eyes along the centre of the road (yellow indicating overtaking is not permitted), and in certain places red dots along the hard shoulder or left edge of a motorway. Single blue cat's eyes are used to indicate the location of fire hydrants. In rural settings and along
State Highways A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...
, these markings are augmented by retroreflective posts along the edge of the road (white reflectors on the left, yellow reflectors on the right when on a left turning bend). Bridges are similarly marked with retro-reflective markings in diagonal bands of white and black (to the left) and yellow and black (to the right).


Continental Europe

In almost all European countries, cat eye road studs will include reflective lenses of some kind. Most appear white or gray during daylight; the colors discussed here are the color of light they reflect. Because of their inconspicuousness during the day, they are always used in conjunction with painted retro-reflective lines; they are never seen on their own. White markers — for lane markings. When used on dual carriageways, motorways, or one-way roads, they may illuminate red on the reverse, to indicate drivers are traveling the wrong way. Yellow or amber markers — These are found next to the central reservation (US: median) on motorways and dual carriageways and, in the Republic of Ireland, are also used on hard shoulders. Red markers — These are found by the hard shoulder on motorways and at the edge of the running surface on other roads. They are also occasionally used to indicate a no-entry road and when traveling down the wrong way of the motorway/dual carriageway. Green markers — These are used where slip-roads leave and join the main carriageway on dual carriageways. In some countries, they are also used across the entrances of minor roads or accesses onto major single carriageway roads or lay-bys. Blue markers — Are used to indicate the entrance to police reserved slip-roads (these do not lead anywhere, they are to allow police to park and monitor motorway traffic). The exception to the above rules are: Fluorescent yellow markers — These are used to indicate temporary lanes during roadworks on major roads and are glued to the road surface; they are never embedded in it. Any painted markings will be removed from the road surface if they contradict the markers. They are fluorescent yellow in color, so they stand out in the day, but reflect white light at night. Where used, they are much more numerous and dense than standards markers, as they are not used in conjunction with painted lines. They also appear yellow on the edges but reflect red on the left side or amber on the right


Lebanon

In Lebanon, cat's eyes are widely used on most freeways, highways and roadways. On freeways and highways, every one (or sometimes two) white stripes separating lanes is followed by a white shining cat's eye. On the edge of the road next to the median strip, a yellow cat's eye is placed every . On the road shoulders a red shining cat's eye is placed every . On roadways separated by double yellow lines, a yellow cat's eye is placed inside the double yellow lines every . Before speed bumps, a series of cat's eyes are placed shining white to the oncoming traffic and red to the car from the opposite direction. On pedestrian crossings, blue shining cat's eyes are placed after every zebra line. On roads with traffic lights, a series of red shining cat's eyes are placed before traffic lights to make drivers slow down.


Safety

On the morning of 25 April 1999 on the M3 motorway in Hampshire, England, a van dislodged the steel body of a cat's eye which flew through the windscreen of a following car and hit a passenger in the face, killing her instantly. The coroner recorded a
verdict In law, a verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. In a bench trial, the judge's decision near the end of the trial is simply referred to as a finding. In England and Wales ...
of
accidental death An accidental death is an unnatural death that is caused by an accident, such as a slip and fall, traffic collision, or accidental poisoning. Accidental deaths are distinguished from death by natural causes, disease, and from intentional hom ...
. Investigators acknowledged that the cat's eye bodies occasionally came loose, but added that such an accident was previously unheard of. A question was asked in the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
about the safety of cat's eyes in light of the incident, and the
Highways Agency National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a State-owned enterprise, government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving Roads in England, motorways and major A roads in England. It al ...
conducted an investigation into the "long-term integrity and performance" of various types of road stud.


Notes


References


External links


Reflecting Roadstuds Ltd
(Shaw's company)

* ttp://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?IDX=GB436290&CY=gb&LG=en&DB=EPODOC Shaw's patentbr>Cat's eyes website with information about a previous patent application
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cat's Eye (Road) English inventions Road infrastructure Road surface markings Traffic signs 20th-century inventions