Patent ID: 8425144

Claim:
A pavement marker for use in a dispenser, said pavement marker comprising light reflective beads and a binder and configured for dispensing on and for becoming partially embedded in a molten base line on the surface of paved highways, said pavement marker formed of a cured molded mixture that partially melts and fuses with the molten base line in response to contact with molten base line that is at a temperature higher than the fusing temperature of the binder of the pavement marker, said pavement marker including a base surface for becoming embedded in the molten base line, an opposed surface for protruding above the molten base line, and a side surface intersecting said base surface and said opposed surface, said base surface being flat and free of protrusions that would inhibit sliding against said opposed surface of a duplicate pavement marker and having a greater breadth than said opposed surface such that said side surface is sloped with respect to said opposed surface at an angle to produce an audible vibration when a wheel of a vehicle engages said opposed surface of said pavement marker, said pavement marker characterized by some of said light reflective beads being partially embedded in said binder and partially exposed on said opposed surface and on said side surface for reflecting light from the vehicle, and others of said light reflective beads being totally embedded in said binder material such that as said binder material wears away from said opposed surface and said side surface some of said light reflective beads totally embedded in the binder will become exposed for reflecting light from the vehicle, said pavement marker being shaped such that a plurality of said pavement markers are vertically stackable and the partially embedded light reflective beads of said opposed surface of said pavement markers are slidable against said flat base surface of the duplicate pavement marker next above when a plurality of duplicate ones of said pavement marker are arranged in an upwardly extending stack with partially embedded light reflective beads of said opposed surface facing in an upward direction and said flat base surfaces facing in a downward direction.