3M™ Connected Roads All Weather Elements offer excellent visibility in wet and dry conditions. They’re engineered with a unique 3M 2.4 (wet) and 1.9 (dry) refractive index bead technology designed to shine in dark and wet roadway conditions. Elements, when used with compatible binders and a second drop of glass beads, form pavement markings that are highly visible, day and night, under both dry and wet conditions.
Arrow denotes 3M Elements product; Yellow lines are from another brand.
The non-wet retroreflective yellow lines and the white wet retroreflective line are both visible.
Both non-wet retroreflective and wet retroreflective materials are visible.
The competitor product is not wet retroreflective and therefore not visible when wet, while the white wet retroreflective line containing 3M Elements remains visible.
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) studied crashes on a stretch of roads where wet weather pavement markings were installed between 2011 and 2017. The results suggest that 3M Elements wet-weather pavement markings have positive safety benefits in all conditions — wet, dry, day, and night.
Here’s what TTI found:
Almost half of crashes happen at night. Most of those crashes occur in wet conditions and during rainfall, with lack of lane integrity being the other major factor in those crashes.
3M Elements make lines more visible not only in rain and darkness, but also in the clear light of day. As shown in the image, the dark areas on the first two lines indicate water coverage. Even when covered in water, the 3M Elements line shows minimal dark areas, ensuring clear visibility. In combination with durable binders, 3M Elements maintain visibility when water covers the roadway line.
*Source: Park, ES., Carlson, P., Pike, A., “Safety Effects of Wet-Weather Pavement Markings.” Transportation Research Board 2019 Annual Meeting: Available from: https://trid.trb.org/view/157225