It’s Surprising How Long White Lines On Texas Highways Are

Gun to your head, how long would you guess the white lines on Texas highways are? Two feet long? Eight feet? You're not quite there. And how much space would you guess is between each of them?

Everything is bigger in Texas, as it turns out, except the length of white lines on our highways. In The Lone Star State, just like every other state, the rules are clear regarding how long they must be.

How Long Are White Lines on Texas Highways?

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) established these guidelines, and these lines, which are much longer than they seem, play an important role in road safety in Texas and throughout the U.S.

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways—the MUTCD—defines the standards used by road managers nationwide to install and maintain traffic control devices on all streets, highways, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, and site roadways open to public travel. The MUTCD is published by the Federal Highway Administration

When you're driving 75 MPH, it doesn't register in your mind how long the white lines are. Typically, the broken white lines that separate lanes of traffic moving in the same direction are 10 feet long, with 30 feet of space between them.

The reason that this standard 10-foot pattern seems shorter when driving is due to a phenomenon called motion parallax. This is where objects, in this case, long white lines, appear smaller as the faster they move through your field of vision.

Next time you're on the highway in Texas, test each of your passengers. See who can guess the length of the line correctly.