Increase Safety with Parking Lot Stencils & Other Pavement Markers

Parking Lot Stencils, Road Tape & Reflective Road Markers Create a Safer Parking Lot

Parking Lot Stencils and other types of pavement markers provide high visibility, easy to follow cues to motorists and pedestrians. These road markings provide us with important information, such as: where to park, where not to park, which lane to be in, and even where we should not drive. Without proper pavement markers our roadways and parking lots become a dangerous free for all.

Let's go over some of the most common types of pavement markers and talk about some of their important features and benefits.

Parking Lot Stencils & Highway Stencils

Stencils provide a template for painting symbols on a paved surface. In the case of highway stencils, the stencils must conform to specific FHWA (Federal Highway Administration), MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices) and DOT (Department of Transportation) regulations. Without the approval of the FHWA/ Regional DOT they cannot be legally applied to certain roadways. Highway stencils are generally larger than parking lot stencils because they need to be visible from greater distances and at higher speeds. For more information, check out these MUTCD FAQ's regarding Markings.

Parking lot stencils are not regulated the same way that highway stencils are and therefore are not as uniform in size and appearance. Stencils created for use in parking lots are generally smaller. This is because parking lots are meant to be traveled at much lower speeds than highways, and also because the roads tend to be of a much smaller scale than highway roads.

Manufactured from durable plastic, road stencils are designed to be lightweight, durable and re-usable. They can be rolled up for easy transport and are easy to clean. Residual paint just dries up and falls away.

Reflective Road Symbols

Road symbols are similar to road stencils. But, where a stencil is the "negative" space of the shape (the positive space is painted onto the pavement), a symbol is the "positive" space (the shape itself). The road symbol is typically manufactured out of preformed thermoplastic material. Symbols are applied directly to the pavement surface, and are very similar to road tape in their application.

Reflective road symbols offer enhanced visibility, day and night. Glass beads, which are distributed throughout the material during the manufacturing process, are exposed during normal product wear, thus ensuring retroreflectivity remains uncompromised throughout the entire life of the pavement marking symbol.

Much like stencils, symbols used on roadways and highways must conform to federal and state DOT regulations.

Some things to consider when deciding whether to use paint stencils or symbols:

• Symbols last 8 to 10 times longer than standard traffic paint
• Symbols require no special installation tools
• Symbols can be installed at temperatures down to 32°F

Road Tape

Reflective road tape offers a high visibility solution for short-term, temporary pavement marking situations, such as new road construction, asphalt overlay and road repair. Road tape is weather and traffic resistant, yet easily removable and pliant. Road tape can be removed with heat or paved over when your project is complete. White and yellow reflective road tape is available in a variety of widths and roll lengths to suit your specific job requirements.

Temporary black out tape is used to cover existing pavement markings during construction, repairs, or other circumstances which require temporary re-routing or shifting of traffic flow in order to maintain order and safety. Black out road tape is non-reflective. Once the traffic diversion is complete, black-out tape can be easily removed to once again reveal the original pavement markings, and allow for normal traffic flow to resume.

Chip Seal Markers