Cat's eyes

[Anna11]

How do 'cat's eyes' in the road work?

[Gardenlover]

A small mirror is fixed at a certain angle in a road surface and this reflects the light produced by car head lights during darkness.

[Ed Ancona]

Three mirrors placed at mutual right angles, like one corner of a cube, constitute a "corner reflector," A corner reflector has the useful property of reflecting light directly back to its source, regardless of the direction in which it entered the reflector. The "cat's eyes" are reflectors molded with many small corner reflector shapes on their surface. They can be covered with a transparent red or other filter to reflect red light back to the source. In your car, your eyes and the car headlamps are near enough in the same direction from the cat's eyes, that the headlamp light is reflected back to your eyes no matter in which direction you approach the reflectors in the road.

[MJPearson]

As far as I know, some cats eyes have one other feature - when a car runs over them, they are pressed down into their housings, where the lenses are cleaned.

[Golly]

Re: Cat's eyes cleaning themselves, only the old rubber mounted variety "blink" as you run over them, not the newer moulded plastic ones