Magic Cat's Eyes

badbaz · March 13, 2011

Driving on the A70, westbound out of Balerno a couple of weeks back, I was pleased to see the intesity of the cat's eyes on the road showing very clearly where the edges/centre line were.

My other car is a Skoda Superb and the headlights are brighter than the sun, whenever there are newish cat's eyes on the road they stand out amazingly well.

But there's a big difference with these ones on the A70, looking in the mirror, even with no other traffic in sight, the cat's eyes behind glow as brightly as those ahead!! So I'm thinking, are my tail lights THAT bright? A simple test proved that they are not. Turning off all lights, in the pitch dark, revealed that the cat's eyes are just as bright (well almost) as when the lights were on! Bare in mind this is pitch dark! You can drive with no lights on and see just as easily the road ahead (and behind).

Are they powered? Certainly not wired. Maybe solar? Or luminous? That wouldn't account for the ones behind when a car hadn't passed for several minutes? I know from work how bright my fire extinguisher signs are when they glow in the dark but it doesn't last long at all! Maybe they are just amazingly reflective??

Someone will know.....