What happened to the Cats Eyes?

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MrHappyHammers@reddit

I just keep seeing signs saying they’ve been removed and I always say “that poor cat!” Every single time.

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Heard some guy in the pub rant about he's certain it's the government working with lawyers and actors so more accidents meaning more lawsuits and money lost on them (he was 5 pints deep by this point)

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One_Complex6429@reddit

How come that they were an important safety feature once that have become a waste of money as councils have become hard up. Most near us have been filled in with tarmac as they get damaged

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AstronautIll6270@reddit

The Edinburgh bypass has "smart" cats eyes on a couple of traffic light controlled roundabouts. They light up to show the correct lanes to us when traffic lights are green. They're excellent - just like airport taxi ways.

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NoisyGog@reddit

Must be regional. There’s still lots around here in Wales. We’ve even got LED ones on some fat rural roads, so you can see the road curve off in the distance (and behind you!) even if you’re on dipped beam.

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the_wally_champ@reddit

Genuine question - how are the LED ones powered?

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360No-ScopedYourMum@reddit

Solar

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AirconGuyUK@reddit

Seems needless to me. Loads of complication for an invention that worked perfectly in a passive and cheap manner.

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wimpires@reddit

There's one small section of a roundabout near me that has LED cats eyes. They make a huge difference. Especially when we have massive stretches of motorway round here with nothing at all.

Alibaba pricing suggests they're about £2-3 each. Whereas non-LED ones are about 40p each. So an extra £2.50 per light.

My rough back of the envelope calc suggests about 2-5m on all motorways. Roughly the same across Dual Carriageways - fewer lanes but longer length.

Let's call it 10m in total. That's an extra cost of only £25m to go from reflective to LED.

And they do genuinely make a huge difference. Fck it, let's increase the cost by 4x. £100m. But they last 10+ years. £10m a year amoritsed cost pales in comparison to the potential benefits of reduced accidents in human cost and lost time.

Realistically the cost to replace them is way higher than just the units. Workers, lane closures, diversions, safety, overtime, lighting, supplier verification, sourcing, storage, road works, road demolition and reconstruction, etc etc. but on a like-for-like basis if a reflector is damaged or is needing replacing it should be with an LED.

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AirconGuyUK@reddit

I don't think they have 5x the utility. Also I guarantee you the government is not getting them for only £2 each.

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mh1191@reddit

Presumably solar…

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the_wally_champ@reddit

In the UK?! /s

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NoisyGog@reddit

Yes, in the UK. Here’s a breakdown of electrical generation by type in the UK yesterday, as an example. The yellow blob is solar, which is by far our biggest source of electrical energy. Blue is wind.
You don’t need to live in Africa to master use of solar, we get sunlight every day.

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AutomaticInitiative@reddit

This is my fave tracker! https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Gas turbines are our greatest producer, followed by nuclear which runs flat out 24/7 and gives us about 16% of our energy. Sun is up there but really does depend on the time of year, wind is usually greater.

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_ham_sandwich@reddit

Same, I find the web 1.0ness of it very calming hah. It’s also nice that the dial for solar is small, as it was such a small contribution back then.

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NoisyGog@reddit

Wind is an incredible baseline generator in the UK

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

Upper end of Scotland and the Scottish islands could power the entire world with the amount of wind they get, but wind turbines are fucking dogshit and a cancer on this planet and I will not elaborate

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NoisyGog@reddit

I will not elaborate

What an absolutely pointless waste of everyone’s time that was.

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Cow_Launcher@reddit

He's probably complaining about them "spoiling" the view from his gold course.

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RiClious@reddit

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

I don't like the waste they create

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

I'm an absolute bellend sometimes, I'm sorry :(

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

I like that one because it has one for France, but it's a bit boring because it's 90% nuclear all the time

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AutomaticInitiative@reddit

It reflects the truth of where our energy comes from. The nuclear running 24/7 does mean the gas turbines only have to spin when everything else isn't enough. As someone who works in the energy industry it's wild to me how we keep the grid within .5Hz of 50 at all times.

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

It's 2 hours in the future, the sun has started to go down, and we're currently getting the same amount of our electricity from our nuclear powered friends in France as solar :)

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mh1191@reddit

I knew we had lots of solar farms, but it is pretty cool to see it the top producer

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isaytruisms@reddit

Almost all of them are solar, but there are exceptions. Some have power running between them under the road so they can be used in contraflow scenarios. I think the Blackwall tunnel uses these, but it's very rare.

Most are self contained solar as you said. They're expensive to install as they need a lower temperature resin Vs bitumen to avoid cooking the internals

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coomzee@reddit

Do they still have a reflective part? When I need cats eyes the most is during foggy weather.

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mynameisollie@reddit

I can imagine they don’t need much sun to run for a decent amount of time. Modern LEDs are incredibly efficient.

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Still-BangingYourMum@reddit

Quick copy paste.

" LED cat's eyes (also known as solar road studs) are powered by renewable solar energy, capturing sunlight during the day to power LED lights at night. They are self-contained units that do not require external electricity or wiring.

How They Are Powered and Recharged:

Solar Collection: An integrated solar panel on the top surface absorbs sunlight during the day.

Energy Storage: This solar energy is converted into electricity and stored in an internal energy storage device, such as a super-capacitor or a rechargeable battery (typically Lithium or NiMH).

Automatic Operation: The units feature a light-controlled switch (photoelectric switch) that automatically turns the LED lights on at night or during poor weather conditions (e.g., fog) and off during the day.

Performance: Even on cloudy days, these studs can reach a full charge in roughly 3 hours. A full charge can last over 120–200 hours, allowing them to function continuously even during consecutive days of bad weather.

Key Features:

Visibility: They provide active lighting, making them visible from up to 900–1000 meters away, compared to just 90m for traditional reflective studs.

Durability: They are typically constructed from aluminum alloy or high-impact polycarbonate, making them durable enough to withstand traffic and harsh weather conditions.

Design: Some designs are "flush" (less than 4mm high) to reduce the "bump" sensation for drivers, while others are raised. "

This is something I just learned about as well

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coomzee@reddit

Yes. When I need it the most I want it to work.

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Pick_Up_Autist@reddit

Yeah, they're efficient as they said, so they do.

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SituationMundane5452@reddit

Voodoo and magic

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Jexii-x@reddit

They’ll have little motors under each one, powered by the buh-donk of each tyre going over. Given the number of people that can’t keep to their own side of the road these days, they’ll be able to send the excess energy back to the grid ;)

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Kistelek@reddit

You mock, but that’s how the old type cleaned themselves.

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Jexii-x@reddit

That’s where I got the idea from 😁

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Nights_Harvest@reddit

They use one trick big oil hate.

Built in solar panel.

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Occamsfacecloth@reddit

Cat food

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NoisyGog@reddit

🤣

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NoisyGog@reddit

Solar, and a battery is my guess.
It took me a while to realise what was going on, something looked different but I couldn’t place my finger on it, then it dawned on me that I wasn’t just seeing them ahead much further than usual, but behind me, too.
I haven’t stopped to have a look, but I bet they’re Solar powered

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GreatZarquon@reddit

I was in Wales a few months ago and I noticed the LED ones, they were very cool. I turned my lights off to check if they really were lights, I wasn't sure if I was just trippin

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AirconGuyUK@reddit

We’ve even got LED ones

Why have they added technology to a perfectly good existing passive technology?

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NoisyGog@reddit

You could just read what I wrote, no? There’s a reason in there

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AirconGuyUK@reddit

But that's functionally no different to before. Now with added complication.

The addition of being able to see the road behind you seems.... Minor, and totally pointless.

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NoisyGog@reddit

so you can see the road curve off in the distance (and behind you!) even if you’re on dipped beam.

Fucking READ, will you?

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AirconGuyUK@reddit

Yeah, cats eyes have always worked on dip beam. I actually mentioned it in a completely different comment earlier in this thread that that's the biggest downgrade. I used to be able to drive on just dipped beams and now I can't.

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NoisyGog@reddit

If your headlights don’t reach them, they’re not going to reflect.

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AirconGuyUK@reddit

It doesn't take much headlight though.

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NoisyGog@reddit

But it does take some, you absolute weapon.

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AirconGuyUK@reddit

Yeah, I am not talking about driving without my headlights on am I?

Are you?

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Gow87@reddit

East Yorkshire here. Same thing. The new LED ones are great!

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Paramaniacc@reddit

Coming into llandovery by the hospital 🤌🏻

So good at night!

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Yankee9Niner@reddit

Is that what is going on there?! They are incredibly bright and I had actually pondered if they were powered and not just reflective.

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Jealous-Chain-1003@reddit

some lanes use leds now it’s deferent all over the country there’s no standard

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Beartato4772@reddit

Got damaged. Didn't get replaced because council budgets have been cut and capped by central governments for decades and now three quarters of the entire budget goes on social care they're not allowed to cut.

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just-tea-thank-you@reddit

Does three quarters really go on social care that they can’t cut? Is there proof of this?

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TheLemonChiffonPie@reddit

I’d think that pensions are another big chunk…

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TJ_Blues18@reddit

In Scotland, Education and Social care funding provided by the government to the Local Council is ringfenced. That means they can't alter it. It's 84% of the budget together in my area.

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Instructions_unclea@reddit

For my council it’s 32% on adult social care and 15% on children social care.

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chaostrulyreigns@reddit

My relative is housed in a v posh residential home for 250k a year paid by the local council. His carers are paid 19k a year.

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AnonymousTimewaster@reddit

That's unusually low. The average is about 80%

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Instructions_unclea@reddit

There’s also a large chunk dedicated to “education services” and another to “grants to schools”. It isn’t clear what exactly this is, but assuming this includes SEND provision/taxis etc, then that’s another 29% taking the social spend total up to 76% of the budget.

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burgermachine74@reddit

Generally those two categories contain the en masse of any costs that can be linked to education, yes

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Beartato4772@reddit

You’ve got lucky. For now anyway.

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Instructions_unclea@reddit

I think it varies quite a lot by location - an area with more elderly people will be spending more on adult social care, whilst an area with more poverty/dysfunction will be spending more on child social services.

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Beartato4772@reddit

It absolutely does but the average is three quarters and rising.

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J-Force@reddit

It's 3/4 of new tax increases, so when your council tax goes up 4.99% (which the councils have to do to avoid bankruptcy), three quarters of that must be spent on adult social care.

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Youresogoodlooking@reddit

I work for a local authority. Our social care spend is more than 80% of the budget

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enricobasilica@reddit

Most councils send a budget breakdown every year and if you're really keen you can sign up for the consultations where they talk about their budget plans.

For my council social care was 30% of the total budget 3 years ago and the need increases every year while income from the government is flat or decreasing.

And yes, it's an item councils are forced to fund from their own budgets (ie they cannot decide to pause or cut spending on it).

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BirchyBaby@reddit

Yes

https://news.sky.com/story/englands-councils-spending-78-of-their-main-budgets-on-social-care-13496240#:~:text=According%20to%20new%20figures%2C%20councils%20in%20England,for%20specific%20services%20that%20people%20pay%20for.

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just-tea-thank-you@reddit

It excludes education, which is 33% of all council spending, making the denominator artificially small and the percentage artificially large.

It applies only to upper-tier councils, not all of England’s councils.

Government data shows social care is actually around 30% of total spending across all councils, or 44% excluding education.

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untakenu@reddit

What does social care mean?

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sailingdownstairs@reddit

Care homes and visiting carers for elderly and disabled people plus associated stuff.

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Youresogoodlooking@reddit

That's just Adults. Children's social care is also substantial - for example the number of looked after children who a LA have a duty to accommodate has hugely increased since COVID

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untakenu@reddit

Ah, good to know, thanks

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lethargic8ball@reddit

Social care is less than 4% of the UK budget.

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Beartato4772@reddit

Easily disproven lie.

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lethargic8ball@reddit

Please do..

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Beartato4772@reddit

It’s been posted multiple times in this thread you haven’t read. Even when prompted.

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Creative-Lemon555@reddit

The problem isn't three quarters of the budget goes on social care

The problem is they reduced council budgets soo much there's no money left to redistribute so everything gets worst.

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Beartato4772@reddit

Well yes obviously, the point is social care is a fixed amount (in fact growing in real terms) so when they're fucked over they have to double fuck over everything else, notably the next highest expense for my council, road maintenance.

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Sadness_tbh@reddit

Three quarters of the national budget does NOT go to social care. It is one quarter. This information is freely available. https://wheredoesitallgo.org/

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Greedy-Mechanic-4932@reddit

You're responding to someone talking council budgets, with evidence of "national" budgets.

It's like saying your local Sainsbury's has the same budget as head office.

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Beartato4772@reddit

The council tax budget.

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AnonymousCapybara72@reddit

To add to this, some perspective for people who whine about councils neglecting the roads:

Most of councils' budget has never come from council tax. Its come from central government. In 2010, government slashed council funding and effectively cut most councils' budgets to half or less. Despite increases in council tax, most councils today have lower budgets in real terms than they had in 2009.

Around the same time, government shifted responsibility for funding social care from central government to councils. Social care is the single biggest cost for all councils, and growing rapidly. Almost all councils spend at least half their budget on social care.

And the worst part - British people are so utterly fucking thick, councils took 100% of the blame. The Tory government that deliberately engineered this situation got away with it entirely.

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RememberKvatch@reddit

Gov funding, local council changing priorities, bigger and heavier cars causing more damage to the roadway and furniture then years before.

We had a new strip of A road done by me and it's littered with them.

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LopsidedLegs@reddit

It's a shame, there was a road not too far from me but in another country and they trialled LEDs instead of cats eyes. It was frankly the one of the best roads to drive at night. It was put in before 2010, it's still there I believe but it is something that should have been rolled out.

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Unlucky_Power_3508@reddit

I believe in Australia (possibly other places too) they have fluorescent paint which glows in the dark.

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Captain-Codfish@reddit

That's just idiotic. Another thing to break. Normal cat's eyes work absolutely fine and are self cleaning. Just keep on tol of maintaining and replacing them when they eventually break. Don't replace them with some electronic bollocks.

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Altruistic_Fruit2345@reddit

They have been shown to be better than purely reflective road studs, because they show more of the road ahead. Failure rates are similar. We know how to make reliable electronics.

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Captain-Codfish@reddit

There is no way, that an electric cat's eye can be as reliable as a ball of glass in a self cleaning housing

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Accomplished-Oil-569@reddit

Yes way…

In the same way an EV battery will more than likely outlast the metal holding the car together.

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Captain-Codfish@reddit

Oh yeah, good point. An EV battery will last nearly forever, in a landfill. And yes I'm sure that an electric circuit is just as reliable as a normal cat's eye. Also, did you know that pigs can fly, and that the moon is made of cheese?

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Accomplished-Oil-569@reddit

Well for one, when the car does get scrapped, the parts will be torn down and reused in further EV batteries, because the chemical makeup doesn’t change - it’s mostly a closed cycle.

And yes, the most basic electronic circuit consisting of 3 components can outlast the metal and glass casing it’s in, which is constantly being driven over….

Putting your ignorance on full display isn’t the flex you think it is.

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Altruistic_Fruit2345@reddit

Glass breaks, the housings deform and need replacing, the cleaning brushes wear out and become ineffective...

We can make extremely reliable aircraft electronics, there is no reason why we can't make solar lights reliable too.

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Squidgy-Metal-6969@reddit

Do they cost the same? We can't afford to maintain our roads properly so shouldn't be spending extra on the LEDs.

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Accomplished-Oil-569@reddit

Yeah about the same, a tiny bit more, but when you’re getting the added benefit of lighting the road a little, I’d say it’s worth it

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dontgoatsemebro@reddit

I would be surprised if LEDs aren't cheaper

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lost_send_berries@reddit

They need to thread a power cable through the road when it's laid though?

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Altruistic_Fruit2345@reddit

Solar powered, no cables needed.

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zirouk@reddit

Looks like it’s time to pick up the feathers that have been spat all over the place.

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rossfindlay@reddit

I work for a Scottish council and we put some in on a rural stretch of road, so cool seeing them lit up !

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rossfindlay@reddit

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jtr99@reddit

Looks good!

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Creepy_Macaron2492@reddit

That light pollution is horrific

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mythtixx@reddit

Yea there's a road near me with some led cats eyes and they are very niice 👌 it's nice to see them in the mirror looking behind as well

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Space_Cowby@reddit

Our canal tow path has solar cats eyes / lights to show route in white and bends / bridges etc in red.

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mythtixx@reddit

That sounds amazing id love to have a walk down that in the evening

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Space_Cowby@reddit

It can be lovely and peaceful, some great pics in https://www.solar-eye.com/case-study-wolverhampton-canals/

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permaculture@reddit

Wow, which canal?

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Space_Cowby@reddit

Its Wolverhampton https://www.solar-eye.com/case-study-wolverhampton-canals/

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permaculture@reddit

They've fixed up a lot of towpaths near me (Grand Union in Hillingdon) recently, but no LEDs.

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Space_Cowby@reddit

It's so much better when they have a good surface. Some of ours are tarmac but others are bare soil. But with three canals and a lot of locks there is a lot to do.

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GeminiCheese@reddit

Give it a few years and most of them will be broke. They don't seem to stand up to impacts as well as the originals.

A stretch of our rural A-road was done with these about 4 years ago and they are rather patchy now.

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jodorthedwarf@reddit

The A12 seems to alternate between LED ones and regular ones every 5-10 miles. Though it definitely coincidentally lines up with the sections of it that are pleasant to drive on and the bits that have me genuinely questioning if my wheel has fallen off, every 30 seconds.

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arseman26@reddit

T'is only coincidental cuz they must've redone the whole road to put in the LED's

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iikamii@reddit

About the only decent thing about the A12 is the parts with led eyes

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Head-Helicopter-5107@reddit

Cumbria? A69 by any chance?

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LopsidedLegs@reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/1sptre0/comment/oh4to9i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

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Aggravating-Food3368@reddit

They tried led cats eyes on the A590 and idiots were switching their lights off because they could follow the eyes

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Scarred_fish@reddit

It is. We have been replacing traditional cats eyes with solar LED (they are still reflective too) for 8 years now. They are cheaper and more resilent tan traditional cats eyes so I'd love to know the reasoning if anyone is still using them, other than they may have a massive stockpile.

(am roads engineer)

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Captain_Biscuit@reddit

There's a big complex junction by me that has lil strips of LED lane markers that light up when the light goes green. Makes you feel like you're on the runway being cleared for takeoff, 10/10.

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LushHappyPie@reddit

I have a walking path like this. It’s a treat in the winter to walk in the darkness, surrounded by creepy trees, but the path is paved and the sides are illuminated with tiny, shiny stars. The only problem is the dog walkers who feel entitled to shine their torches in your eyes. It hurts and leaves you blind for a minute.

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countjocular@reddit

A412 Denham to Iver Heath used to have them.

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LopsidedLegs@reddit

that's actually the road that I was referring to.

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anomalous_cowherd@reddit

An early test road was between Worcester and Kidderminster. The LED cats eyes they used on that one used the common power saving technique of flashing too fast to see.

Unfortunately as you drove past and saw them with your more flicker-sensitive peripheral vision it got really distracting... Long coloured streaks of light shooting past you like you were attacking the Death Star!

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Plus_Pangolin_8924@reddit

The A1 between the Border and Grantshouses (north) all the junctions have lit cat’s eyes and it’s amazing although it’s like driving on a runway.

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Puzzleheaded-Ad-4883@reddit

I think I first saw some on the A631 just East of Bawtry around early 2000 or even late 1990s. They were flickering, which is why I noticed them. Only a short length of road, under a mile.

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Jacktheforkie@reddit

They’re mostly LED around my way, unfortunately they don’t have reflective properties so when they stop lighting it’s not visible, not a huge issue if it’s one or two, but whole swaths of them aren’t lit

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RememberKvatch@reddit

I can imagine it would have looked great. But as all things great I can only foresee people nicking them in the future!

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dowhileuntil787@reddit

More and heavier HGVs.

Cars do basically zero damage to a road surface built to A road standards. Even the antisocially huge yankmobiles.

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FailTuringTest@reddit

Yes, I graduated as a civil engineer back in the 1990s and we were taught how to design road surfaces (thickness of asphalt, gravel layers, that sort of thing). The design formulas depended only on the expected amount of HGV traffic; cars were not a relevant factor at all.

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CamR111@reddit

I'm a materials technician for an asphalt supplier, the sub base buildup has stayed similar, although recycled materials are increasingly being used. The asphalt is now a lot more advanced than before. Close graded surfaces are falling out in favour of SMA. HRA is also still quite widely used although it's seeing increased use in new build estates as the heavy electric cars exert a lot of torque on the high traction parts of estates (bell mouths etc). But ultimately when we are talking A roads, we still focus on HGVs. A high psv stone in an SMA with a polymer modified bitumen is pretty much the gold standard in highways at the moment.

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Inevitable-Plan-7604@reddit

bigger and heavier cars causing more damage to the roadway and furniture then years before.

I just don't think this is very true at all.

A Honda CRV weights about 1.7 tonnes. A ford mondeo estate (same number of seats, similar boot space) weigh(ed) anywhere from 1.4T to 1.85T

Compared to delivery vans (DPD, hermes, amazon, DHL, sainsburys, tesco, asda, waitrose, ocado) it's absolutely negligible.

A fat family in a car from the 1990s would make it weigh more than a modern SUV with a healthy family in.

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LongBeakedSnipe@reddit

This is some awful maths.

The comparison to heavier vehicles is irrelevant. Ultimately what matters is more cars causing on average more wear.

How does cherry picking a fat family help the discussion. All that matters is the averages

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Inevitable-Plan-7604@reddit

I don't really care wha you have to say tbh, direct your anger at OP who said "bigger and heavier cars".

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Nice-Rack-XxX@reddit

EVs are usually 10-15% heavier than their ICE equivalents.

The heavier a car gets, the worse it is for roads. I read this article about it all the other week: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/11/suv-britain-potholes-worse-scientists-heavier-cars

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hachi2JZ@reddit

Even more than 15, it's routinely as much as 30-50% from what I've read. e.g:

BMW 440i, 1560kg / BMW i4 M50, 2200kg

VW Golf GTI Mk8, 1460kg / VW ID3, 2000kg

Ford Kuga 2.0 AWD, 1700kg / Ford Explorer AWD, 2170kg

Vauxhall Corsa 1.2, 1150kg / Vauxhall Corsa-e, 1450kg

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dowhileuntil787@reddit

They said it “may not be negligible”. It’s almost a rounding error compared to lorries.

Interestingly the higher torque of EVs might even be a bigger factor than their weight, particularly for the road surfaces around traffic lights. Still not something that needs to be worried about though.

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OpulentStone@reddit

I had a silly moment and read that as though you personally did all the A-roads in your area. Impressive

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Altruistic_Fruit2345@reddit

Good of you to do it yourself.

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Important-Zebra-69@reddit

There is some car damage but most is freight because rail is wank and underfunded (recently) for profit.

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Omgitskie1@reddit

Wow great job doing it all yourself, maybe we should all go and do a road each 😁

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PennyBunPudding@reddit

Cars having headlights more powerful than the sun probably stops the need for them

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Glittering_Vast938@reddit

Some of us don’t and need the cats eyes and white lines to be visible.

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adougies@reddit

Especially needed for us when blinded by said highlights that are more powerful than the sun

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PennyBunPudding@reddit

Huh, I thought everyone had a personnel SUV driving up their ass at night. TIL

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PM_ME_BEEF_CURTAINS@reddit

then years before.

Than

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rapafon@reddit

You did the new strip of the A road?

Thank you for your service 🫡

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RememberKvatch@reddit

Lad, someone's gotta do it

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Fantastic-Pear6241@reddit

Can you do my patio?

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RememberKvatch@reddit

Sure mate, I'm sure I can fit you in between number 6's new driveway and 12's summer house. I'll send Gav round for a butchers

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Fantastic-Pear6241@reddit

Perfect, just need to know how he takes his tea

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Plus_Pangolin_8924@reddit

Tbh the once that replace the old ones are just cheaply made and poorly installed so the first vehicle to go over them seems to just break them.

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Quiet1408@reddit

All good reasons but there's also the development of stronger and brighter headlights that can make them largely non essiential. Compared to 40 years ago when catseyes were practically essiential.

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Captain-Codfish@reddit

Absolutely not. They are 100% essential still, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.

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ValkyrieLyra@reddit

Holy spirit I'd forgotten about these. I realise I haven't seen these for year now.

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terrybradford@reddit

What with the X-ray headlights these days you don't need them so much, I do I drive a old car with "NORMAL" headlights not the modern shit ones

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PerpetuallyDone1801@reddit

I never appreciated how vital they are until a few weeks ago when I was driving down the M6 in a downpour in the middle of the night. When the lane markings are either faded or completely invisible in the wet, cats eyes are the only indication you've got.

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BravePerspective25@reddit

They simply don’t get replaced. Also, car headlights are far more advanced than they were in the 80s 😂 so less need in the road illuminating to show you the way

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ThePirateOfDarkwater@reddit

It finally came to an end after three series. Jill Gascoigne was married to Alfred Molina and went on to become a novelist. Leslie Ash stayed in acting and has appeared in a number of UK shows. Rosalyn Landor also continued with acting and has done audiobook narration.

Oh, the road thingies? No idea.

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SUB2DRAGONACE1ONYT@reddit

I think they should make them solar, slightly pricey, yes. But it’ll be nicer and safer driving at night

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Additional-Lion6969@reddit

They've gone over to scotchlight strips instead of act cats eyes and they don't seem to kast as long

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magrandan@reddit

Your annual 10% increase in council taxes are going to councillors pockets, that is what happened.

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Thin-Boysenberry-112@reddit

Love driving with cat eyes- makes me feel like a pilot going down the runway lol

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SnooDonuts6494@reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/drivingUK/comments/1gziodd/what_happened_to_cats_eyes/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/1hxcd5k/whats_happened_to_cats_eyes_on_roads/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/1b50lbi/are_cats_eyes_not_really_a_thing_anymore/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/1d4rgtm/are_catseyes_being_removed/

https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/m3oub5/cats_eyes_has_anyone_seen_any_recently_or_have/

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zwifter11@reddit

I was driving down the A1 the other month, late at night. Thinking to myself “I wonder why so many cats eyes are missing?” Has someone stole them? Some sections have no cats eyes for miles.

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IAmStrayed@reddit

I would imagine they’ve either come loose or bounced out after compression.

I want to say people aren’t dumb enough to steal them but…

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zwifter11@reddit

I found it baffling why quite literally all of them were missing for quite a few miles? It wasn’t just the odd one or two, here and there.

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Own-Jeweler3169@reddit

Ig there's no need since these fuck off sun-lit LEDs are here to beam everyone's eyeballs into a well done state.

Teslas and VWs mainly to blame.

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Prefect_99@reddit

Same deal as the roadsigns covered in moss. 15+ years of managed decline.

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JustMrChops@reddit

At least the old cat's eyes were self cleaning.

A38 near us has LEDs now. Many are out (mostly on slip entry/exits) and many are flashing. I think they're a crap use of tech for the sake of it.

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Prefect_99@reddit

100% keep it simple.

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e1n0f@reddit

Cars drove over them more than 9 times?

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HirsuteHacker@reddit

Neoliberal austerity politics destroyed council budgets. Roads like these are maintained by local authorities rather than central gov. Hence, there is less money for things like this.

It's also why there are so many potholes these days, and why all the remedial work is surface-level, where the potholes reopen again within a year.

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Minimum_Possibility6@reddit

It's not that they destryoed the budget persay (they did) but it's the impact of having mandated ring fenced services more so than ever so they even if they have a surplus there, they cannot move the funds across. Added to the fact the social care budget comes from the council that's what's destroying them. Move social budgets to Westminster and run at as a arm of the NHS and councils will be able to function again

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godsavedonalduck@reddit

It's also why there are so many potholes these days

Pftt, can't be.

uK haS sAFesT rOads aCcoRdInG To stAtIstic

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HirsuteHacker@reddit

Maintenance of the road surfaces dropped off a cliff about 15 years ago and just stayed in the shitter. That doesn't mean our roads aren't still among the safest though so I don't know what you're trying to say.

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godsavedonalduck@reddit

How can they be safe when they're falling apart and literally killing prople? Take your union jack tinted glasses off pal.

A motorcycle literally died because of our country's roads being "among the safest"

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/experienced-rider-43-dies-after-33676856.amp

Our roads are dangerous and in my opinion are some of the worst kept in Europe in some areas.

They're not fit for purpose, they're too crowded, not maintained enough and too narrow. Id honestly feel safer driving in a third world country at times.

The infrastructure in these countries are no worse than ours.

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HirsuteHacker@reddit

Because they are. Because the stats say they are. You can come up with whatever little anecdotes you want, if the stats say that fewer people are dying here than almost anywhere else in the world, and it's shown to be the case regardless of metric used, it's pretty clear.

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godsavedonalduck@reddit

😴😴😴😴😴😴

Rule brittania.

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Ambitious-Pie-845@reddit

The councils etc say they are to expensive to replace so a lot aren’t replacing them plus the council say the headlights are better than they used to be so no need for cats eyes they also say there is no need for street lights that shine on the road so a lot of council are moving lamp posts back away from the roads as they no longer need this also give them the chance to put low power cheap to run led lights in and also turn off some street lights due to the new vehicle headlights. Not forgetting people used to steal the cats eyes and sometimes the holders as well due to them being cast.

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BlueOtter1901@reddit

Last week road workers came along the local roads and removed them all. No idea why.

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Particular_Gap_6724@reddit

Cost. Real cats eyes are expensive. If you've ever dismantled one, you'll see why.

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Hobbsy117@reddit

Pretty sure a decent section of the M6 has them

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AbbreviationsIll6106@reddit

I saw was a road sign once saying something like, 'No eyes ahead'. Made me laugh considering the road was leading towards a place called Eye.

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Plastic-Stable-7679@reddit

My council wont fill pot holes. let alone stuff like this.

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Debenham@reddit

I think it's a county by county thing.

Here in Derbyshire they are plentiful, but I was shocked (shocked I tell you!) driving near Grantham last year in the evening and seeing no cats eyes.

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tommangan7@reddit

Must be regional, as yeah see them all the time in my area and saw the cats eye team out last week doing some.

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godsavedonalduck@reddit

Yet were supposedly one of the safest countries in the world to drive in with:

-Inadequate safe lighting for night driving

-Roads literally crumbling apart with pot holes causing more damage to your car/a threat to pedestrian and your own safety.

-Roads with significance that are essentially narrowed down to 1 lane due to excessive parked cars due to a lack of designated residential parking.

-Roads that are too narrow for the volume of vehicles driving on them and a nimby attitude to improve these roads.

-Constant speed monitoring including sneaky positioning which is more dangerous than safe when you consider bad driving skills and reaction time from many considering our aging population and careless, arrogant driving meaning potential collisions with other vehicles & road users.

-Poor road marking visibility in a lot of deprived and generally underfunded communities which causes confusion, bad decision making and general impairment in busy or unfamiliar areas.

Honestly it's miserable driving in the UK and Tbh, doesn't feel any safer than countries like Italy and France as much as we slag them off. Yes these places may have bad drivers and narrow roads too, but we do it on a greater scale too unfortunately.

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MathematicianOnly688@reddit

"We're looking at 50mph (in a 40 mph zone) as the speed Andy was travelling at that time, but he wasn't driving dangerously. It was a simple overtake manoeuvre but his decision to perform this manoeuvre was not consistent with the Highway Code.

Maybe it was this part they were objecting to.

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superflick_x@reddit

I noticed this a few years ago. I thought it was my night vision getting noticeably worse and then I drove down a road I used to travel a lot after I’d recently passed my test and realised, they were all gone. Used to make such a difference.

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JesterScribblings@reddit

Government reduced them to save money so they can feed and cloth more illegal migrants. Those iPhones aren't cheap that they give them you know!!

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Vectorman1989@reddit

Maybe it's your area, I've been noticing them more now as there are newer types that are easier to see. I've even seen electronic ones that light up with traffic lights to show when your lane is open.

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cdh79@reddit

They dont work so well when you are constantly blinded by audi LED death rays, so they've not been replaced.

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Sea_Line888@reddit

There was a section of road near us that installed cats eyes that retained the light for a short period once your headlights had activated them, people were turning their lights off and trying to follow the road , ended in some serious crashes. They all got removed in the end and original ones put back in.

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SituationPlus8467@reddit

There’s an abandoned road in osgodby, Scarborough.

I got so many fucking cats eyes I thought my bedroom would be like space at night.

Found out they reflect, not glow.

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frankieepurr@reddit

Have you not seen the rest europe?

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Cultural-Meaning5172@reddit

Drivers keep breaking them so we sent paying for me for you to keep doing it

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Street_Razzmatazz279@reddit

I dont know but they were the dogs bollocks

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Fit_Kaleidoscope_830@reddit

Running out off cats..... No cats no cts eyes....

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dannydrama@reddit

They got damaged and like everything else on the road and beyond, fuck all is being done to fix it.

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First-Yak-7586@reddit

What cat eye?

[-]

Paynekiller997@reddit

Look up what happened to DJ Kemistry

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Fairyrhino@reddit

Wish they were laid on unlit roads still. I suffer badly with migraines, they can be triggered by head lights, so years ago I would rely on cats eyes to follow the road until car's passed me at night. Now I avoid driving in the dark

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Unfair-Draft7697@reddit

I remember as a child hearing on the radio that they were removing all the cats eyes in a local area and quietly freaking out that they would do such a thing to the poor cats

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Outside-Sherbet-9448@reddit

The A1(M) between junctions 15 and 17 was resurfaced recently, cat eyes all reinstalled, it was particularly glorious driving on blue lights.

It lasted about a month and half of them don't work/have been removed.

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sean1983_uk@reddit

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This-Risk-3737@reddit

I hadn't thought of it until just now. There are definitely a lot fewer around. Budgets are no doubt part of it - but headlights are also much better than they used to be.

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yolo_snail@reddit

Not really.

They resurfaced a load of roads round here last year, and all of them had the cats eyes replaced.

The annoying part was they had the road closed to resurface it.

Then left it a few weeks without markings.

Then they closed it again to do the markings.

Then left it a few weeks.

Then closed it again to install the cats eyes!

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Chippiewall@reddit

The multiple separate closures will be because different teams were contracted to do each bit of work and it's easier to schedule them to not be one after the other in case one of them got delayed.

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strangesam1977@reddit

The old paint was probably reflective too. Just so old it had cacked out.

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yolo_snail@reddit

The council also resurfaced my mother's estate a year or two back, and the paint they used there definitely wasn't reflective.

Maybe they have different paints for different roads

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BorderlineWire@reddit

They do have different types of road paint . The reflective sort is probably thermoplastic with glass beads in there but it doesn’t always have them.

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strangesam1977@reddit

Possibly. Did our tiny back street with reflective paint. But you have to look really closely to tell it’s reflective (tiny glass beads)

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Master_of_Ocelots@reddit

Some types of road markings, epoxy based from memory, work best if the surface has aged slightly, the top layer of excess bitumenfrom laying to have worn a little, for them to stick really well. Or they just failed to organise it properly given the cats eyes went in another night entirely.

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baloney_dog@reddit

I'm in the U.S., and my lunch companions and I were just talking about the same thing happening here. We miss them!

[-]

ahoneybadger3@reddit

I work at the local airport and winter just gone found myself in a bit of a predicament.

A lot of snow.

There's zero cats eyes or lights to differentiate between the taxiway and the road so I'm driving blind.

6am and I'm driving along in my wagon when I look in my mirror and see a plane directly behind me. Turns out I'm driving down the taxiway.

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Just-Importance6207@reddit

All blinded by the new LED headlights

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doublegulpcup123@reddit

Driving along narrow winding roads in Europe made me realise how lucky we are to have these. Even the reflector posts on the side of the road are better than nothing.

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TheGorgieGeorgie7492@reddit

I used to joke with kids that it was someone's job to switch them on at night.

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EUskeptik@reddit

The original ’cat’s eyes’ consisted of a cast iron frame with a rubber insert. The iron frame was glued into a hole drilled in the road surfacing with hot bitumen. The insert protruded above the road surface and contained four spherical glass lenses, two pointing in each direction. As a car tyre went over the cat’s eye, it would depress the insert, wiping the glass lenses against part of the insert, thereby keeping them clean.

From the 1970s onwards, injection moulded plastic versions were made. They were fixed to the road surface with hot bitumen or solvent bitumen adhesive. There was no drilling required and the plastic cat’s eyes cost a fraction of the cast iron/rubber originals. Clearly the motivation was to cut costs.

Of course the plastic versions are inferior in every way. They don’t stay clean and they are too easily dislodged, often within days or even hours of installation.

Road marking paints incorporating myriad tiny glass spherical beads known as ‘ballotini’ are also used. However, these markings require maintenance they often don’t get so fade away.

-oo-

[-]

bennythefish@reddit

Plenty of roads with them still on

[-]

OutrageousMilk2512@reddit

Some near Coningsby in Lincolnshire used to go blue when the road was below freezing. Test spot I think, also a known frost hollow in the road.

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Acceptable_Hope_6475@reddit

They got old and died

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Key_Study8422@reddit

NHS is free, so no need to improve the roads.

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RudePragmatist@reddit

Well as it turns out they can pop out at the speed of a bullet and kill you. > DJ Kemistry

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Btd030914@reddit

I remember a car journey to Scotland and my dad told my cousin they were made of real cat’s eyes and she cried all the way to Scotland

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bobopet2@reddit

Tbh I hate them... They would be nice if they were only on the sides, but between lanes??? I hate that. It messes with my OCD every single time I change lanes. I always time my lane changing to avoid hitting them

[-]

Siilvverr@reddit

I think manon went on hiatus ??

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Paul_T_M@reddit

Not where you asked but still one of the most bizarre and tragic deaths was involving one that became dislodged - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/apr/04/kemistry-storm-the-tragic-story-of-the-drumnbass-originals

[-]

dazabhoy67@reddit

Wow i forgot these were a thing on back roads. Childhood memory unlocked.

Every week we would drive home the back road and in winter I would always doze off to them in the darkness.

[-]

Lanokia@reddit

Money.

[-]

EastEndersDrumSound@reddit

The Tories

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PM-UR-LIL-TIDDIES@reddit

Yeah, they're crap. I drive a section of the A38 between Exeter and Plymouth several times a week at night, and unless you've got your main beam on, you can see maybe one or two immediately in front of the car. I'm sure you used to be able to see them much further away before they were replaced with "modern" ones.

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Clean_Material_5047@reddit

Cats eyes? And what about the street lights? Can’t believe how dark most roads are in England..

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testdasi@reddit

Holy cow, I just drove yesterday evening and was wondering the same thing!

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ScaryMagician3153@reddit

In the dark when it’s wet, and there’s are oncoming cars, it can be almost impossible to see road markings now there are No cats eyes. It’s seriously dangerous

[-]

coastaltikka@reddit

Good shout OP! I remember them being everywhere too

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AirconGuyUK@reddit

Asked this same question to my friends recently and they thought I was mad, but 100% roads are harder to drive on now than they used to be. I used to never even bother with full beams because all roads would be lit up with the reflection in the cats eyes. Was so much nicer.

[-]

Sensitive-Youth-9803@reddit

Probably all fell out the the road, like all the roads are full of holes and neglected and falling apart.

[-]

janesteven09@reddit

Any one in for fun dm me

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Ok_Mathematician4038@reddit

Not needed anymore since you get blinded by those bright ass blue lights on all new cars

[-]

FitSolution2882@reddit

The fucking surface dressing is what happened to them!

[-]

Captain-Codfish@reddit

It's disgusting, isn't it. It should be one of the highest priorities. Cats eyes save thousands of lives every day. They're one of the most successful, and most effective safety features for driving at night. The government should be throwing money at making sure they're functional. People will argue "lack of funding, careful spending" but yet they still have the money to introduce a digital ID. It's the result of a corrupt government, who don't care about the people, refusing to sort the real problems, so that they can push their bent agenda on us.

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Fair_Ad8447@reddit

Only just realised this too! Loved looking at these when I was younger

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SituationMundane5452@reddit

This reminds me of driving on a country road a few weeks ago with my 10 year old daughter. There were some ongoing roadworks accompanied by a big red sign that read “cats eyes removed”

It blew her mind 😂😂😂

[-]

teut509@reddit

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Rocky-bar@reddit

How much do they charge for this cruel service?

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SituationMundane5452@reddit

That’s the very fellow 😂

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DeifniteProfessional@reddit

I'm not sure why they actively remove them. Like I get just not replacing failed ones, but what the fuck? Why are they getting rid of them for a whole stretch?

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samj00@reddit

PETA

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Kwayzar9111@reddit

Glow in the dark white markings need to be used, some countries use it and it’s brilliant

[-]

JamesHowell89@reddit

I've always been wary of them since one killed Kemistry. Glad they're going.

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Illustrious_Sea7480@reddit

Enshitification my friend.

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daniluvsuall@reddit

Off topic but funny story.

17 year old me, just passed my test. Drove down a dead country road and one of the cats eyes was massively out of step to the others.. I stopped and tried to pick it up 🤣 no one saw thankfully

Anyway! Budget cuts I bet, can’t even maintain the roads these days

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Glittering_Vast938@reddit

Yes I’ve noticed. A local A road had zero functioning cats eyes and the white lines were barely visible! No street lights.

Fun when driving at night with bright LED lights blinding you as well.

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bobbystrand1@reddit

I think with the size of potholes, these are the least of the council's concerns

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tinfish_arsenal@reddit

Cost cutting measures

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andyeyecandy111@reddit

Ran out of cats.

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Hadouken434@reddit

If it's anything like the cateyes they've installed over here (IOM) they've been broken off and lost because they are cheap plastic crap glued down with a dollop of bitumen.

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kiradax@reddit

They're dirty or broken, councils could fix some maybe but it they dont have the cash

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PomPomBumblebee@reddit

My estranged father used to insist his relative invented them but the person named as the one responsible stole their idea.

Apparently before the divorce it was one of the many things my dad wound rang about. That's all I know about cats eyes and I have noticed you don't see them as much.

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SpiderLight97@reddit

Seem to be quite in order where I am. Must vary by area.

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DevilsAdvocate1662@reddit

I forget which country it was but I saw one place just used glow in the dark paint for their road markings, genius idea

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SnooMacarons4225@reddit

The cats are tired bro

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DonBenson@reddit

The cats unionised and refused to work without improvements in pay and working conditions.

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sprintstar66@reddit

Not needed now as all modern cars seem to have billion lumin headlights this making the road like daylight.

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Vertigo_uk123@reddit

Reminds me of some great cats eyes in Rwanda. They had blue all the way around the roundabout plus red on the edges of the road and green in the centre. Brilliant for visibility. Countdowns on the red lights was also a great idea.

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Independent_Craft125@reddit

As a teen I used to walk along a busy road when the road was quiet and collect all the cats eyes. I had hundreds of them

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LordAnchemis@reddit

More potholes instead - they discovered this was more effective at slowing you down

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Thin_Formal_3727@reddit

If you take minute to think about how much tax is generated from us per day, then look at what we dont have that we absolutely should, you will ruin your Sunday....dont do it.

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Fellstorm_1991@reddit

It's all going into paying pensions, social care and the NHS. And as the pensioners won't let their triple lock be touched, we are stuck with an ever-greater percentage of the budget supporting economically inactive people.

As pensions and benefits are lumped together in the budget, the disabled and ill get blamed for being scroungers when it's really the pensions that take up the majority of expenditure.

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Thin_Formal_3727@reddit

Pensioners deserve a decent pay out. We should be looking after our citizens as a priority. There is more than enough for cats eyes, pot hole repair etc. I know that that comes from a different tax pot, but at the end of the day, of we have enough to hang chicken wire over tunnels for bats to the tune of £10m a go, we have enough to keep roads safe.

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peterchekhov@reddit

Look at you with your bullshit, you really do not understand the absolutely massive number involved do you? Going on about bat wire, whats wrong with you?

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Thin_Formal_3727@reddit

Yes I do, that's my point. Do you have a point or just depressed and lashing out on a Sunday?

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thefishstolemysalad@reddit

Not to mention increased defence spending

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Motor-Command-2680@reddit

Pulled them all out near me in the 80s after a kid got ran over stealing them. Only just bothered to pull the sockets out last year and tarmac ovrr the holes.

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Stained_concrete@reddit

Off on a tangent here,but did you know that there are four colours of cats eyes and they all signify different things?

I may have this wrong but it's something like white ones are in the centre of a road, yellow at the side, green ones across an exit lane and red across a lane joining the road.

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listo-@reddit

This is part of the theory test now, white is lane markings, red for the left edge of the road, amber for the centre reservation and green for exits

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CthulhusEvilTwin@reddit

almost - white mark individual lanes, red marks the left edge, yellow the central reservation and green marks turnings off the road on the left. I did my driving test last year and that one kept coming up in the practice questions.

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Prior-Explanation389@reddit

The A9 in Scotland looks like a runway at night in parts.

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TrackTeddy@reddit

The old cast iron and rubber cats eyes cost a fortune but lasted for decades. The newer reflector type are much cheaper but don’t last as long. Their lifespan often depends on how strong the road surface is that they are bonded onto. Whereas the old ones were under the surface and the rubber bits were replaceable.

So in short cost cutting and greater use of grit covering rather than full surface repairs mean we have lots of broken bits of plastic at the side of the road rather than reflective studs in the centre.

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Minimum_Possibility6@reddit

Yep pretty much this, short termism costs more,.but not on this year's ledger

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Tonybham01@reddit

The paint they use these days is more reflective. As a result they don’t replace the cat’s eyes.

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GlumAd9856@reddit

NIMBYs said they didn't want artificial lights ruining their local area.

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ScientistJo@reddit

Cat's eyes are reflectors, not lights.

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Giant_Gaystacks@reddit

Some are lights.

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TedBurns-3@reddit

Ha ha didn't OP just ask about cats eyes? So many moaning replies not even about the subject... Don't get me started on the ones who think they're electric 😂😂😂

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Giant_Gaystacks@reddit

Some of them are powered.

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Eukonidor_Of_Arisia@reddit

High level corruption by politicians and local authorities gouging out all the funding for themselves.

[-]

matomo23@reddit

Oh bore off. It’s constant with you lot. You aren’t even thinking about what you’re saying anymore you’re just randomly spouting rubbish with no source.

Cadent were fitting replacement gas pipes on the main road round here and some pillock said “more brown paper envelopes I guess”.

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Eukonidor_Of_Arisia@reddit

Yeah, you're probably right. I'm sure the most self-serving, materialistic specimens in our society, who are invariably the only people attracted to such positions are actually paragons of virtue and completely misunderstood. /s

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kilgore_trout1@reddit

So you’re saying that you think local councillors / council officers are taking public money out of the system and paying it to themselves, and that’s the reason we don’t have cats eyes anymore?

Have you got any kind of source or details on how you think that might be happening?

[-]

Still-Criticism5828@reddit

Lucrative contracts getting awarded to companies that happen to be owned by friends of the council decision makers who in turn get back handers/promise of well paid jobs later. The contracts are bloated and unnecessarily expensive or the company inadequate to deliver on it thereby requiring further funds to rectify issues.

Ultimately funds are drawn away from the intended sources such as road improvements and into the pockets of companies to benefit individuals.

Source: every PPE contract in covid, ferry contract to a company that doesn't have boats... etc.

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You'd expect to be able to have lighting on motorways improve to make journeys safer, not regress.

It's 2026 and councils expect us to have cars with powerful headlights however how can we buy cars with those things if all our money is going in their pockets???

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