Road surface marking material and marked road

Claim 1

A marker, particularly for use on a roadway pavement so as to provide a traffic regulating indicium, comprising a base compound including a first binder and having a smooth, substantially planar and highly light-reflective surface adapted to face away from said pavement; a plurality of particles securely bonded to said base compound and each having a largest dimension between substantially 0.1 and 1 millimeters and a hardness substantially higher than 7 on the Mohs'' Hardness Scale, at least some of said particles including an upper portion extending outwardly from said surface and comprising a pointed end portion, said end portions being spaced from one another by a substantial distance and imparting good anti-skid properties to said surface, and said upper portions together constituting at most 10% of the total area of said surface, whereby the light-reflectivity of said marker is high due to the small fraction of the total area of said highly light-reflective surface constituted by said upper portions, and the dirt-retentivity of said marker is low due to the substantial spacing between said end portions which makes it difficult for dirt to be retained in the flat-bottomed recesses between said end portions; and a second binder intimately contacting said particles, said second binder wetting said particles when contacted therewith and being compatible with said first binder.