# About those curbs in the middle of the street ...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 15, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192 "2004-04-15T17:27:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MizQuirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizQuirk)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/1 "2004-04-15T17:27:55Z")
The Highway Department probably calls them dividers, but by any other name, they’re just as nasty to hit because they’re so hard to see, especially at night. I have no hubcaps left on my car, and I refuse to replace them until those curbs are painted white or yellow. I’m not a bad driver, but a defensive one, and have never had an accident. Does anyone else have this problem with dividers/curbs, or is it that my eyes are unable to cope with these anymore?
MizQuirk
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### Author:  [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/2 "2004-04-15T17:55:27Z")
I love so many things about St. Louis, but not the curbs. I got my driver’s license in Florida and I never had to deal with a curb until I came up here. Now, everytime I park on my grandmother’s narrow residential street, I have to scrape the wheels against the curb because the neighbors across the street have a big-ass Dodge Ram van and if I’m not absolutely up against the curb, traffic can’t get through. Not to mention curbs at intersections that jut out so far that you run over the corner trying to make a right turn. Round those fuckers off!
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### Author:  [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/3 "2004-04-16T13:21:03Z")
I thought this was going to be a rant about inappopriate and unnecessary use of so-called traffic-calming devices that do more harm than good, one of which I have seen used is the placement of curbs that extend farther out into the street at intersections. A few years ago the city of Boise tried doing this on a fairly well-traveled residential street in order to slow down speeders, but too many people complained about their tires hitting the curbs as they drove past, or forcing them to weave over towards the other side of the street to avoid the curbs, causing more collisions and near-misses with opposing traffic, so the devices were taken out.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/4 "2004-04-18T03:49:18Z")
Atkins-friendly low-curb streets! Yeah.
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### Author:  [@county](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/county)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/5 "2004-04-18T12:19:22Z")
Ah, the “fixed object,” bane of drivers everywhere.
I hit one of those curbs (actually a median strip) in Greenville, Mississippi once. Going down the road at speed in my F-150 Ford and spot a gas station and decide to whip in and fill up. Cut right in the gray twilight and proceded to jump over the gray curb. That was some turn I tell you, felt like all 4 wheels were airborn at one point. My scotch on the rocks went straight up and it rained scotch right there in the cab of the truck.
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### Author:  [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/6 "2004-04-18T17:36:22Z")
> [@MizQuirk](#):
>
> I’m not a bad driver, but a defensive one, and have never had an accident.
You mean, other than running into curbs and losing all your hubcaps?
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/7 "2004-04-18T17:46:55Z")
Is there something special about these curbs that makes them hard to avoid, other than being low to the ground and grey (like all the curbs I’ve ever seen)?
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### Author:  [@Magickly\_Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magickly_Delicious)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/8 "2004-04-18T19:18:23Z")
If it’s in the middle of the road, it’s generally called a median. In your case, a raised median. I’ve never been to Texas, but there are some where I am. I don’t believe they’re usually painted, just marked by the lines on the regular pavement. I’ve never hit one.
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### Author:  [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2004, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/9 "2004-04-18T19:47:26Z")
Should be dynamited out of existence and repaced with wide center lanes that function as left-turn lanes where needed and as “breakdown lanes” elsewhere.
In the Omaha area, city and suburban street crews are constantly reworking islands at various intersections in order to expand the left-turn cut-ins and thus avoid left lane blockages due to an overflow of left turners at rush hour. Every time see this useless pursuit wasting my taxes, I wonder why the idiots in charge of our local governments can’t see the obvious logic of just getting rid of the islands.
Near my home. a street “improvement” project has resulted in the widening of a two-lane ,not to increase capacity but to provide a traffic island. The result is that broken-down cars are either pushed up onto the islands (which are already cracking since they weren’t made to street-quality specs) or abandoned in the driving lane necessitating motorists’ running over the islands to get around the obstruction.
Had this street been equipped with a wide center lane,with the idea that those with disabled cars who pushed them into the center lane would get a little slack from the normally impound-happy local cops, the whole project would have been worth the money and the three months of detours.
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### Author:  [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2004, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/10 "2004-04-19T01:49:19Z")
> [@dwc1970](#):
>
> I thought this was going to be a rant about inappopriate and unnecessary use of so-called traffic-calming devices that do more harm than good, one of which I have seen used is the placement of curbs that extend farther out into the street at intersections.
Another one I’ve seen is a circular island stuck in the exact middle of an intersection. Which means you can’t go straight down the road, but must swerve to the right, even if you’re not turning.
It’s in a newer subdivision, and I imagine some parents were complaining about the nasty drivers who drove too fast through it. Not that I’ve ever even see kids play outside in that area, but whatever.
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### Author:  [@county](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/county)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2004, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/about-those-curbs-in-the-middle-of-the-street/240192/11 "2004-04-19T15:20:26Z")
“or is it that my eyes are unable to cope with these anymore?”
Having never, personally, hit one of “these” sober and based on other posted responses, it appears that your eyes are definitely at fault.