When did the almost universal practice of painting a centerline on city streets begin? I’m trying to decide whether my street scene in a small town/small city needs them.
Looking through John Pryke’s " Buliding City Scenery" and other 1950s’ -60’s photos I was surprised to see no lines at all on Lexington Ave. etc.
My scene woul be located in a dead end/cul-du sac with adjacent parking lot at a depot with a couple of brick structures across the street.
Thanks very much,
Jim
It would have depended on the state, county and/or city as to the use of centerline painting. Back then it most likely was a single white painted centerline or dashed white centerline, 10’ long, a 30’ space, 10’ long and so on. Yellow centerlines were required after 1971. Back then, just as now, dead end streets are usually not painted. A lot of what you see today did not occur till after 1971, double yellow centerlines, edge lines, separate lanes with arrows at intersections, etc.
This site has links to various Manuals of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD going back to the 1930’s:
https://ceprofs.civil.tamu.edu/ghawkins/MUTCD-History.htm
The MUTCD is the uniform nation wide guideline followed by both States and local jurisdictions for striping and signing roads in the United States.
Because the standards evolve over time, time lag in implementation, and differing interpetations (and misinterpetations) by State and local road dept. engineers and officals (not all of whom are engineers) responsible for the various roads, there is no definative answer to your question.
For instance the 1961 MUTCD specified white centerlines for rural two lane roads and yellow centerlines for multilane rural roads. The 1971 MUTCD specified only yellow center lines. But the yellow centerline on rural two lane roads began to appear well before 1971. I know of one rural two lane road that still had a white centerline in 2005.
Thank you Will and DS. I’ll definitely check out that link. I thought I remembered dead end streets not always having lines or even parking lines for diagonal street parking but I WAS surprised by the NYCity big avenues not having any.
I’m considering having the manhole covers placements “suggest” visually, traffic separation if I con’t go with any lines.
Jim