# Why should I care about "grooved pavement"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 11, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695 "2004-10-11T19:45:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/21 "2004-10-12T19:08:46Z")
> [@Civil Guy](#): > > 1. This is a hunch, but I think there’s one other thing going on here: the ‘grooved’ pavement may be where the construction crews have milled off some pavement in preparation for constructing a new blacktop overlay. (Several possible reasons: remove pavement high spots; remove some areas of pavement damage; but mostly to allow a clean “join” to adjacent pavment.) This is in San Francisco, and the sign’s been there for years, so it’s not a construction zone. (O’Shaughnessy for the locals). I makes sense that it’s to warn about the change in driving conditions, as **misnomer** says. We have a rather large percentage of idiots on our roads too. 😃 Thanks for the reponses everyone, and welcome to the boards **Civil Guy**! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/22 "2004-10-12T19:10:44Z")
[QUOTE=Dooku] I am. 🙂 Right now?!! ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/23 "2004-10-12T19:37:41Z")
> [@](#): > > This is a hunch, but I think there’s one other thing going on here: the ‘grooved’ pavement may be where the construction crews have milled off some pavement in preparation for constructing a new blacktop overlay. I noticed this on my commute this morning; there’s quite a bit of work being done on 45 here in Houston, the land of perpetual construction, and it seems there’s quite a bit more grooved pavement this week than there was last week. When you say they “mill” the pavement, are they actually grinding down the concrete? What do they use, and what causes the grooves to run in one direction? ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/24 "2004-10-12T20:25:30Z")
> [@Civil Guy](#): > > It’s a little bit of an, er, misnomer, there: the pavement isn’t grooved as such, but it is awfully rough. I imagine they call it ‘grooved’ pavement because ‘milled pavement’ or ‘grinded pavment’ (‘ground pavement’?) or anything else would just leave drivers scratching their heads even more, and this at a time when the basic message is, “Heads Up!” As noted, it really is meant to be a temporary construction thing. I don’t know how they do things in California ( 😉 ), but, from what I saw, milling and resurfacing did, indeed, leave grooves in the milled pavement. And that’s pretty much what I was referring to: milled pavement, not rumble strips or that fancy PPC pavement. _{grin}_ Sorry, **yBeayf** , I don’t remember enough about the milling and resurfacing process to answer your question, but hopefully **Civil Guy** or someone else can. 🙂 (There’s a joke about “groovy” pavement in here somewhere, but I just don’t feel like figuring it out (and the payoff probably wouldn’t be worth the effort)… ) ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/25 "2004-10-12T20:53:11Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Right now?!! I’m multitasking. I’ve got my Blackberry here in front of my helmet. Sure, it’s a little unsafe, but what the heljkjclbxb[sub]dfgdfggfd[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![ntcrawler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/34f0e0/32.png) [@ntcrawler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ntcrawler)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/26 "2004-10-13T06:22:34Z")
[QUOTE=Dooku] There’s a roadsign on my commute that warns about “[grooved pavement](http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/traffops/signtech/signdel/chp4/Images/W16.jpg).” Why would I care about that? I can understand if it made the road less safe somehow, but I can think of why that would be - the grooves aren’t so deep and trecherous that my car is violently thrown to one side - in fact, I notice no difference at all when I drive over them, other than my tires making a small amount of more noise. It’s not like I read it, then grip the wheel and prepare myself for some dangerous hazard. If it were raining, the grooves would actually help, right? And as far as larger trucks are concerned, wouldn’t the weight of them and the size of the tires make it less of a concern? Your car also starts to behave similarly to a record stylus tracking the grooves of a record. Where the grooves go your car will too. Any violent shifts in the direction of the grooves will have a noticeable effect on the direction your car is travelling. May sometimes knock you a bit side to side. ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/27 "2004-10-13T07:01:44Z")
> [@Civil Guy](#): > > 1. In California, major freeways were once built very often out of portland cement concrete (PCC); increased durability, especially for the heavier and more frequent truck loads that might expected on such roads. PCC pavement does have it’s own minor problems; for one thing, it tends to “polish” after long-term use. Recently they resurfaced some sections of elevated freeway here (AL), for this very reason. From what I understand, the concrete remained essentially intact, but a new grippier topping was applied. What is this, and how do they get it to stick? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/28 "2004-10-13T15:15:47Z")
Nobody has pointed out the blindingly obvious fact that you shouldn’t be driving on the pavement in the first place. Keep to the road, goddammit! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![beltbuckle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@beltbuckle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beltbuckle)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/29 "2004-10-13T16:36:20Z")
Motorcycles act very funny on grooved pavement. In a car, one hardly notices. On a motorcycle, it takes some time to get used to your bike wanting to weave all over the place. The key is just to relax on the handle bars and don’t fight it. Just let the bike do it’s thing and don’t worry about it. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/30 "2004-10-13T17:23:14Z")
Oddly enough, cars with very wide tires and/or low profile tires tend to be extra-sensitive to grooved road surfaces and well as ruts, etc. They tend to wander and/or communicate the grooves back through the steering sensation. Lane changes might take on a slightly different feel as well. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695/31 "2004-10-13T17:43:42Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > Oddly enough, cars with very wide tires and/or low profile tires tend to be extra-sensitive to grooved road surfaces and well as ruts, etc. They tend to wander and/or communicate the grooves back through the steering sensation. Yes, I get this “tramlining” effect on the motorway near where I live - the slow lane gets lots of heavy lorries which have worn quite deep grooves in the road surface. It really grabs the wheels on my current car, which has wide tyres, whereas on my old one with narrow tyres it wasn’t so noticeable. I still maintain that you shouldn’t drive on the pavement, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-should-i-care-about-grooved-pavement/268695.md?page=1)