Unusual Street Markings

Perhaps this is nothing insidious, but never the less I find the recent phenomenon quite strange. Approximately a month ago I began seeing arrows (obviously with a stencil as they were so neatly done) spray-painted onto the pavement around my local town. They are about one foot long and have a circular shape on the blunt end, are in groupings of two or three and are white, yellow or green.

At first I really did not think much of it, but over the weekend I took a little drive and there is a very strange pattern that spans several towns. The arrows all point in the same direction (although different colours) until they come to the last grouping. There may be many more as they are sparsely placed, but here is what I have seen.

It begins on Route 57 in Washington NJ, goes through Mansfield and into Hackettstown. At this point they point to Airport road and onto Route 517. This is strange in itself because if one wanted to go through Hackettstown with the least traffic, resistance, residences and possible side roads, this would be the way to do it. It then follows Route 517 through Hackettstown, Panther Valley and finally to Allamuchy. As far as I can tell they come to an end at the entrance to the westbound Interstate 80 highway. Here the arrows are a grouping of three with the outer ones pointing east and the center one pointing west.

Has anyone seen this or have any idea what they are for? My only thought was directions for a parade, but there are no parades that use that route or span those five towns. Evacuation directions?

Hrmm, sounds a bit like warchalking.

Could be used to mark new fire hydrants, street lamps, you name it.

Originally posted by Nerdling
Hrmm, sounds a bit like warchalking.

Could be used to mark new fire hydrants, street lamps, you name it.

Wouldn't they point toward the spot where the object was going to be placed then and not in a direction that the street went? Looking at the pavement so much, I did notice a different symbol for fire hydrants (a little red fire hydrant).


EDIT: Oh! And they were only on this specific path and nowhere else that I have looked.

[edit on 20-9-2004 by Jonna]

Couldn't you just call the local town planner and ask?

Just pretend to be a disgruntled shopkeeper wondering if its kids, you'll either get an explanation or a party line. But then you will have something.

Can you get pictures?

I'm just not sure who to call and as for the pictures. It would take me at least a week as I do not have a scanner.

I was talking to someone at work about it and the idea of a bicycle race/path was brought up which seems possible except for the fact that there is nothing in the community events calender about it. Even so, why the different arrow colors and why would it point to an interstate highway?

its probably markings for gas and water lines. that way they know where to dig. that, or the NWO's operating budget has been severly slashed..

are these places near the coast or a river? it could be evacuation routes??? or something more sinister....muahahaha.

but evacuation path or a maybe a route for a bike race or marathon, nah evacuation route sounds more like it.

Here in belgium, this has been happening for quite some time too, but not for goverment or other official planners, but by criminals.

There is this phenomena here we call "The Polish/Tsjech Art Students" that go around house to house troughout the country, saying they are Polish or Tsjech art students, trying to sell paintings and drawings to pay their studies.

I had one of these boogers at my door a few months back and saw that the drawings were color photocopy's.
I called the local police station and asked if this person were to be arrested and they said a simple "no", but we'll send someone to tail him anyway.

Reason for this is, these guys run around town posing as art students and all they are doing is surveying the inhabitants of homes, checking what locks there are, checking for dogs, alarms, any directly visible valuables, what cars you have and stuff like that.
Then they note down their findings and later, when returning the same path(supposedly running back to their car), they mark the street in front of the houses with their findings.

If you have a dog, but noone else in the neighbourhood has one, it gets marked up, if theres several dogs in the neighbourhood, they don't put any markings, no markings means your safe of those buggers.
Several dogs in the same neighbourhood is a high alert risk, the dogs alert eachother and their owners. So they don't go there.
They can take care of 1 dog without trouble, but they can't silence several dogs in several houses.

So, whats behind this?
Organized crime gangs. The art students are spotters and recon troops.
Their markings are tags to show what houses are safe for them to go into. With added info put into the tags, like loot estimates, type of cars, alarm systems and so on.

The police can't do much about the spotters, they are indeed registered as art students(but don't attend) and they haven't done anything illegal by marking up streets, and they are actualy selling something door to door, wich isn't a crime.

There is however a big database with pictures and explinations of all the markings. And places found to have markings that show they are likely locations for burglary are being watched.

[edit on 20-9-2004 by thematrix]

That is really strange, but these arrows are at seemingly random places. In front of busineses, houses, corn fields, woods, street cornors, etc.

I'll have to ask around the town and see if anyone knows what this is all about.

they could be anything tho really. The could be markig gas lines, water mains, electrical lines, or any number of underground cables. They could be marking portions of maintenance tunnels, they could be pointing in the direction of flow (of whatever) or to a particular site, or who knows. The colors could be specific, or they could be meaningless, just based on whatever neon chalk the worker has that day. Also, keep in mind, that they could be wrong. They could be intended to mark a hydrant, but someone could've made a mistake. The plans could've changed afterwards too. Some might be 'county wide' markings, others state standardized, and even others could be specific to a particular company. As one poster suggested the best thing to do would be to contact the public works department and such. If you were really curious, take a photo, maybe there are some construction/sanitation/etc workers here that will recognize any standardized markings

Please note that they are not chalk markings. They are spray painted onto the ground using stencils seemingly in a professional manner.

Originally posted by thematrix
Here in belgium, this has been happening for quite some time too, but not for goverment or other official planners, but by criminals.

There is this phenomena here we call "The Polish/Tsjech Art Students" that go around house to house troughout the country, saying they are Polish or Tsjech art students, trying to sell paintings and drawings to pay their studies.

I had one of these boogers at my door a few months back and saw that the drawings were color photocopy's.
I called the local police station and asked if this person were to be arrested and they said a simple "no", but we'll send someone to tail him anyway.

Reason for this is, these guys run around town posing as art students and all they are doing is surveying the inhabitants of homes, checking what locks there are, checking for dogs, alarms, any directly visible valuables, what cars you have and stuff like that.
Then they note down their findings and later, when returning the same path(supposedly running back to their car), they mark the street in front of the houses with their findings.

If you have a dog, but noone else in the neighbourhood has one, it gets marked up, if theres several dogs in the neighbourhood, they don't put any markings, no markings means your safe of those buggers.
Several dogs in the same neighbourhood is a high alert risk, the dogs alert eachother and their owners. So they don't go there.
They can take care of 1 dog without trouble, but they can't silence several dogs in several houses.

So, whats behind this?
Organized crime gangs. The art students are spotters and recon troops.
Their markings are tags to show what houses are safe for them to go into. With added info put into the tags, like loot estimates, type of cars, alarm systems and so on.

The police can't do much about the spotters, they are indeed registered as art students(but don't attend) and they haven't done anything illegal by marking up streets, and they are actualy selling something door to door, wich isn't a crime.

There is however a big database with pictures and explinations of all the markings. And places found to have markings that show they are likely locations for burglary are being watched.

[edit on 20-9-2004 by thematrix]

I've gotta say, that sounds really neat!

Man, I shoulda been a criminal.

Zip

Originally posted by Jonna
It begins on Route 57 in Washington NJ, goes through Mansfield and into Hackettstown. At this point they point to Airport road and onto Route 517. This is strange in itself because if one wanted to go through Hackettstown with the least traffic, resistance, residences and possible side roads, this would be the way to do it. It then follows Route 517 through Hackettstown, Panther Valley and finally to Allamuchy.

Sounds like a bike tour with different routes for skill. Here's an example of a ride that uses painted arrows: www.bikenewyork.org... or visit www.ahherald.com... or even www.roberts-1.com...

The bikers need routes with "the least traffic, resistance, residences, and possible side roads" for safer rides and the ability to make frequent stops.

Originally posted by Jonna
Perhaps this is nothing insidious, but never the less I find the recent phenomenon quite strange. Approximately a month ago I began seeing arrows (obviously with a stencil as they were so neatly done) spray-painted onto the pavement around my local town. They are about one foot long and have a circular shape on the blunt end, are in groupings of two or three and are white, yellow or green.

Yes, this is nothing less than your insidious, evil local utility companies marking up the sidewalk for the nefarious purpose of identifying which lines run where so they can know where to dig when they need to dig.

(I know this because I worked for a city government. Got to see lots of this. You find them doing this before street repairs, telephone pole replacement/installation, storm sewer maintenance, etc, etc.)

Originally posted by Jonna

It begins on Route 57 in Washington NJ, goes through Mansfield and into Hackettstown. At this point they point to Airport road and onto Route 517. This is strange in itself because if one wanted to go through Hackettstown with the least traffic, resistance, residences and possible side roads, this would be the way to do it. It then follows Route 517 through Hackettstown, Panther Valley and finally to Allamuchy. As far as I can tell they come to an end at the entrance to the westbound Interstate 80 highway. Here the arrows are a grouping of three with the outer ones pointing east and the center one pointing west.

OK...thats just too wierd. i GREW UP in that area. (i moved to the west coast about two years ago).
my father (who now works for the NJDOT) still lives in Washington...
ill give him a call and ask him if he knows what they mean...

so uhhh?.. hows the insurance rates been lately????

The more I look, the more sure I am that you have bike tour arrows, also known as Dan Henry arrows. Here's the man: www.louisvillebicycleclub.org...

More references to arrows painted on streets for organized bike tours:

"A clever touch was not just the route sheet/map or the Dan Henry arrows painted on the route, but the route sheets were the same color as the arrows you had to follow: �red, white or blue.� Simple, but effective!" from www.bikegaba.org...

"This trip leaves from Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ anytime between 7 a.m.
and noon, and colored arrows painted on the pavement lead riders around the horse country of the Colts Neck area." from lists.topica.com...

"A sad note: Last September was to be the first running of this ride. It was to be called the Twin Towers to Twin Lights Ride (the ferry takes you from the Twin Towers in Manhattan to the Twin Lights in Highlands). We all know what happened last September and the first running of the ride was cancelled. But last year's direction arrows painted on the roads were still visible and a reminder of what happened." from pupgg.princeton.edu...

And you also just had a major ride this weekend to support MS. Routes would be painted for the different skill levels, and they would have started about a month ago for training riders and to prepare ahead of time for the event.

Originally posted by Byrd
Yes, this is nothing less than your insidious, evil local utility companies marking up the sidewalk for the nefarious purpose of identifying which lines run where so they can know where to dig when they need to dig.

Strange that I have never seen them before.

Originally posted by RedBalloon
The more I look, the more sure I am that you have bike tour arrows, also known as Dan Henry arrows. Here's the man: www.louisvillebicycleclub.org...

That seems the most likely culperate. Any images of what they look like?

I lean toward the bike race theory. Utility line markouts are usually only on one or two properties, unless they are repairing an entire street. Utility marking companies don't uses stencils, just straight lines, sometimes they will write down the type of line. utility marking standards (PDF)

They could be cycling race arrows, but speaking from first hand knowledge they might very well be lines for runners as well. One question...

Is your town or any others getting prepared for a road race of some sort?

I compete in everything from mile races to marathons, and these same markings are quite common for runners to follow. Again, if it spans several towns its probably a cycling race of some sort.

My question could easily rule out the possibility of it being a race of some sort as they would post such events in newspapers, etc. The lines and arrows are usually spray painted on the ground in white, pink, orange, etc. so that people can see them both at night and in the daytime.

If they are for either a bike race or a road race they would also have distance markers; more than likely at each mile point...to let the racers know what distance they are at. Have you seen any mile markers or distance markers of any sort? It would be highly unlikely that they would not spraypaint distance markers if it were a race. Maybe you should go back out and see if you can find any distance marks...

...just an idea!

[edit on 20-9-2004 by Jazzerman]

Could be hobo markings. Saw a whole thing about them once. They make them to say if there is a friendly town or something.