alt Hacker NewsIn NC it really depends on where you live. With some of them looking very nice. While others it looks like it has not been touched in 20 years. I personally think they just have a set timeframe to refresh things and they stick rigidly to that no matter how good or bad they are.
I've driven NC from the mountains to the sea and haven't seen good reflective markings anywhere. Certainly all the road markings in and around Wake county are awful. Even at their best the markings don't compare to say Florida roads.
I think part of the problem is that NC counties don't maintain their own roads:
"North Carolina has the second largest state maintained highway network in the United States because all roads in North Carolina are maintained by either municipalities or the state."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Highway_System
I think NCDOT just doesn't use reflective paint. Maybe it's more expensive. I see folks complain about it frequently.
https://old.reddit.com/r/asheville/comments/18ro7lx/why_does...
https://old.reddit.com/r/raleigh/comments/12ehtj6/rain_and_r...
A video of 3M reflective paint that is designed to work in both wet and dry conditions (skip to 6:40):
https://youtu.be/4iY8JqHN-kI?t=400
A related issue you may have noticed is the large amount of trash on our roadsides. This is again because roadside trash pickup is maintained by the state and the budget for roadside cleanup has been de/underfunded since 2008.