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I mounted VLP-16 on the roof of my car while driving, I was expecting the lidar to detect the lanes on the ground since the white lines should have higher reflectivity.
But in fact I cannot see any patterns on the ground. 
This is my rviz screenshot, I can get some higher intensity value on vertical objects, but cannot detect the lanes on the ground.
Is this normal? Do I need to calibrate my lidar for lane detection?
It might work but you need an intensity calibration, to get rid of the false positive. Although, Velodyne calibrates the intensity before they ship the product it is usually not that accurate.
You need to change the color coding to gray to see the lanes with bare eyes or adjust histogram curve to observe the road marks clearly. But definitely, my vlp16 is not that sensitive and very difficult to recognize road marks. I guess a post processing is required to do that.
VLP - 16, isn't capable of detecting lanes / strips on road, this lidar is not that sensitive, as per my research**
You are more likely to get interest into image processing or look how a line follower robot works.
