Millions of red reflector dots will be installed on state highways

QIf you talk about wrongway drivers again, please inform people that the reflector dots on the road glow red if you are going the wrong way. I doubt someone who is impaired and didn’t know this might figure it out, but if they already know it, they might recognize it.

I learned this because one dot on Highway 101 coming down the Waldo Grade into Marin City was installed backward. I had never seen a red one before and a friend and I figured it out. — Ross Heitkamp, Mountain View

AOver the next few years we’ll see 2.5 million red warning reflector dots on state roads. Caltrans officials told the Sacramento Bee that drivers will now be confronted with a “sea of red” in an effort to stem the tragedies that occur when someone going the wrong way — usually drunk or on drugs — slams head-on into fast-flowing traffic.

That means red reflectors every 48 feet or 1,100 red reflectors per mile on 10-lane freeways. Caltrans now places a single row of red reflectors every halfmile on freeways.

The red plastic panels are on the backside of the markers and visible only to wrong-way traffic.

QWith all the traffic monitoring equipment in place, is it feasible to install warning flashers on highways when a wrong-way vehicle is detected? — David Trish

AYes. Caltrans is testing flashing LED lights bordering the wrong-way signs that will be triggered when motion detectors sense a vehicle entering an offramp.

QI have no illusions that I could avoid a wrong-way driver— the closing speed is just far too great. Someone crossed the median straight at me on High- way 152 a few years ago, and I managed to drastically swerve and avoid them even though they were aimed right at my driver’s door. I just got lucky. It could just as likely have ended badly. — Kelly Cox

AThank goodness it did not.

QI avoided a driver going the wrong way on Interstate 280 many years ago. I had to be at work at 7 a.m. My exit was Magdalena Avenue, and I saw the driver going the wrong way about a half-mile before the exit. He was in the fast lane, so I pulled all the way to the right and he passed me going fast. Scary stuff. — Andi Martin

AToo scary, but you were wise to look far ahead and not fixate on the car right in front of you. Also drive in the middle lanes at night to best avoid a wrong-way vehicle.