A Word About CURBs
Okay, a rant about the rascals known as CURBs.
CURBs are helpful because like the lines painted down the lanes on roadways, they keep us from drifting into other lanes or off the side of a road, a gentle bump and we are on our way again. CURBs guide rainwater to their respective destinations, and prevent cars from parking on lawns, just a few of their positive attributes.
So if lines are painted down the middle of roads, sometimes even reflectors added every yard or so, why are concrete CURBs virtually hidden from view?
I have seen some newer CURBs, almost always part of a median, that have reflectors permanently attached. Why are they there, it’s just a CURB, I’ll tell u why.
CURBs are like pot-holes in reverse.
Except CURBs are helpful but brash, reminders to stay in the correct lane or suffer the consequences of a new axle or two at worst, re-alignment at best, but always jarring never-the-less.
When one is turning from the left lane onto the cross-street to the left of the driver,
unless one looks to the left thoroughly, past oncoming traffic in the case of a green light, one might miss that the lane(s) they are turning onto are 2, 4, or 3 lanes wide, while also taking into account a possible median.
Is that median grass or concrete?
Is it grass with a concrete CURB?
Is it a single-wide median or a double-wide median, I have even seen a grassy median that must have been over 20-feet wide, I almost turned right into it up onto that lovely grass thinking it was a proper car lane, surely there couldn’t be that much grass in the middle of a street, but there was.
Did I mention there was oncoming traffic, and that I was wanting to get to my destination so I didn’t wait for the green arrow and took my chances with a regular green light, perfectly legal, 20-foot wide median or not, there was an impatient car behind me honking because I wasn’t turning into traffic fast enuf I guess, and that there were cars waiting, not in the lane I was looking to turn into, but the lanes that were waiting for their own green light so they could cross in front of us?
So let’s see, it was 3-lanes of waiting cars to the left of me waiting for their own green light to go, a 20-ft wide grassy median with concrete CURB, another 3 empty lanes that I was trying to turn onto, 2 lanes of cars driving from the opposite direction, a honking car behind me, and a concrete CURB waiting for me.
Oh, did I mention it was night-time? Yep, complete with over a dozen nice glaring headlights lighting up every possible reflection in existence.
I made it from sheer patience with experience and experience with patience.
Even during the day, turning from under a freeway onto a service-road, I barely missed a little tiny cement triangle of a CURB once..! What the heck? Totally unnecessary in my humble opinion. I guess it was there to guide drivers into the correct lane by banging on various tires.
I know reflectors can be expensive, but when they paint the middle of roads, the sides of roads with those yellow or white stripes, can’t they spend even a splash of paint on every CURB in existence?
I could tell u all sorts of stories about some of the crazy CURBs I have noticed, but u wouldn’t believe me!
Invisible CURBs, the bane of my existence…
