Los Angeles is painting some of its streets white and the reasons why are pretty cool
cbsnews.com/news/los-angeles-is-painting-some...
cbsnews.comPosted Feb 12, 2023, 4:40 PM UTC
3567
cbsnews.comWonder how slick it is when it rains
25
After it gets a good coating of oil.
14
It’s la there already fucked if it rains regardless
12
I wonder, as it breaks down over time, does it start to peal off and flow into the stormwater system and then our water bodies? Does it have any negative affect on water ecosystems?
20
i mean, yea, its a good question. no idea. I imagine they've considered that in the composition, but the article doesn't really go there.
10
Id be excited to keep our cities cooler while we die off. Roadways (Asphalt, concrete, road salt and cars: oil, gas, heavy metals, other fun chemicals) are already a threat to our clean water/health
5
Great, now drivers will be blinded on a sunny day.
19
I am curious about that as well.
7
I wonder if white color couldn’t be added to the asphalt itself? Could they apply white asphalt as roads are resurfaced?
12
You can color the asphalt before paving but I guess doing this works too
3
Seems like it could, based on how many times light pavement in parking lots has blinded me as I walked out of target. Though paint is probably a lot cheaper than new pavement.
1
Every motorcycle rider on a damp day 😐
10
my guess is that its not just paint, and that it does adhere to the texture of the road surface
2
Paint the streets? I’m still waiting for them to pave the streets
8
I’ve driven all over this country, and I’ll tell you that Nashville streets are in better condition than most cities.
0
And then our state legislature passes a law stating that any city with more than 500k residents must paint their roads orange.
7
lol. i mean, that wouldn't really serve the purpose of reducing heat island...but our legislature are basically flat-earthers anyway so...probably.
10
Be ready for an increase in car accidents do to “snow blindness”. It’s real sunny there and a bright reflective surface will make it hard to see. In all, an unwise use of tax dollars.
4†
Wow that price tag is insane. Always wild to me what west coast cities decide to spend way too much money on. Maybe it helps who knows
Would love to see cost vs benefit on this expensive ass shit vs regular white paint. Reflection (particularly infrared) should be the majority of the game here right?
4
Yeah but thats Cali pricing, everything is inflated in price there
1
This is Nashville.
2†
?
1
How is an article ftom the LA Times about LA relevant here?
-1†
i added a comment about the viability of doing it here, but rules don't allow me to add it to the title.
7
Soooo... this article will be five years old this year. I wonder how these projects have held up?
2
i am also curious
2
[deleted]
1
I’m curious to see what the pavement friction is like after applying the white paint. Especially in wet conditions this could potentially be pretty dangerous.
Also I can’t imagine driving into the sunset and being blinded from the sun above and the reflection off the pavement below.
Hopefully the designers accounted for these.
1
they did: https://guardtop.com/new-light-roads-covering-los-angeles-truth-white-streets/
i've seen other reports since I posted this however, that the results are not as effective as intended.
2
Nashville can make developers pay to paint the section of road in front of new construction and remodeled homes. So then it will make just as much sense as the current sidewalk bill…..Sidewalks to no where!
0
this criticism makes no sense. the sidewalk program is great. Not only does it build sidewalks- which presumable you want even though you are criticizing them being built, it takes a ton of burden off the city finances to do so, so when the money is there, all they have to do is finish and connect the pieces, which often is the difference in being able to do it at all, and they do connect the pieces.
1
I’m all for sidewalks but the way they are doing it makes zero sense. None. Drive around any of the areas where this has been implemented. By the time the sidewalks are completed the older sections will need to be redone again. We need affordable housing so adding this on to new construction does nothing but raise the price of new homes and developments. But let’s go paint our streets white.
2
I’m all for sidewalks but the way they are doing it makes zero sense. None.
so you're literally arguing against sidewalks because you want sidewalks. the options are literally this or none at the moment considering we need so many still. The city is buildign them like crazy but its impossible to pay for all of it at once.
By the time the sidewalks are completed the older sections will need to be redone again.
this is 100% false. look beyond the 3 blocks outside of your house. they are being conneceted all the time.
We need affordable housing so adding this on to new construction does nothing but raise the price of new homes and developments.
so what. its not a significant cost to an overall development and removing it wont' suddenly make "affordable," housing appear. The way to make housing affordable is to build as much as possible and as there are less people competing, and less wealthy people competing for lesser properties, the older stuff drops in price.
But let’s go paint our streets white.
we are allowed to attack more than one problem at a time, else you are arguing that we stop things like trash pickup until more sidewalks are built. Or stop building sidewalks at all until more housing is built, etc. this is a silly take
1
I wonder if they will try it in SF. White road in a heavy fog might be more challenging. I also wonder if it has any effect.on stopping distance and how much longer it takes ice/snow to melt from it.
-1
[deleted]
1
SF is cold.
0
So what? The premise of human climate change is that we are overheating the planet. So SF is also too hot even though it may be cooler than LA.
0
What do you mean “so what?” The fact that it’s cold means they have no use for it. The paint is supposed to control heat radiating from concrete. It has nothing to do with mitigating greenhouse gasses… if the concrete is cold, then it’s not radiating heat… pretty simple stuff.
1
[deleted]
-5
how do we get this done here?
-6†
So, pragmatically...
.1. Our roads experience rougher seasons, salt applications, plowing, etc.
.2. You'd have to first convince the Tennessee Legislation that Climate Change exists and in doing so, they'd probably freshly oil them black again to just spite you...and themselves.
37
I dont' think the first is an issue for this coating any more than for the roads in general, it would still have the effect...the 2nd one tho...yea
-2†
It costs $40k/mi, for that alone it’ll never happen here, the roads have seemingly pathetic amounts of funding as it is. And as someone else said, our road conditions are significantly harsher than Southern California.
12
it is expensive, no doubt. would be great to just do it downtown and the closer urban neighborhoods. no reason to go out into the burbs. I dont' think the conditions matter to much, would work the same with a crack or two. Plus, I'd imagine costs come down at some point.
2†
why are people downvoting...i mean...you you enjoy adding an extra 10 degrees in august?
6
We won’t even pay for road reflectors or reflective road paint so you can actually see the lines on a rainy night, I doubt TDOT is going to find the funds for painting whole roads.
4
We don't. This is a stupid fucking idea and a huge waste of money.
1
anything that lowers the heat island effect certainly isn't stupid
1
Step 1. Move to LA.
-3†
i dunno what this is supposed to mean?
2
It’s the old standby ‘if you don’t like it here, leave’. Except in this case you’ve upset the anti-California delegation, so you’re getting ‘move to L. A.’ They don’t have anything useful to contribute, so this is the best they’ve got.
1
yea i know. the question was honestly a bit rhethorical so they have to face the fact that their comment was stupid for the reasons you stated. seems to've worked since its radio silence.
1
Just plant more freaking trees.
doesn't have to be either/or. we should certainly be doing that, but for trees to get tall and broad enough to shade streets we have to have more narrow streets and NES has to actually allow them to grow rather than trimming them constantly. they have to be able to shade streets to have a cooling effect.
We aren’t painting the street white. Best bet is to plant rooftop gardens on buildings. Be real, they can’t even fill a pothole here.
i mean, probly not, but you seem oddly antagonistic here. they do fill potholes tho, especially if you report them on hub
I don’t know what hub you’re referring to because in Nashville is more like a wish program. Even when they fill up a pothole they make sure to raise it couple of inches of the street level!
Great question. The answer is we don’t need people suggesting shit they do in California as anything we should copy. Not one thing.
Or repaint the lines on the road, or have reflectors, or replace guardrails, or time traffic lights properly, or etc etc etc…
Quit clear-cutting trees to build neighborhoods. Take the L on the profit from the extra couple houses that could be squeezed out of a parcel and leave a solid mix of trees in the neighborhood.
It's simply an issue of developers who value money over sustainable practices.
The sad thing is that there’s usually room in the neighborhood to have a decent spread of trees AND still fit the same amount of houses, but it’s much cheaper/easier/faster to clear cut an area so heavy equipment is easier to move in.
Don’t tell me what to do