The city in which I reside decided to replace the curbs on the main street outside my house. This has turned into a long, noisy project. While they have the street dug up, they’re also doing something to the storm sewers. The side street outside my office window turned into a parking lot for workers’ personal vehicles. Both sides of the street. Those folks are gone now, but the ditches around my new portion of sidewalk remain.
My husband asked me the purpose of curbs. I came up with two reasons off the top of my head: to teach people to parallel park (oh, when I was teaching my son it was next to impossible to find a street with good sight-lines and good curbs); and for people who drive standard transmissions to turn their tires against when they’re parking to prevent the vehicle from rolling.
Then I looked up the reason for curbs in my Funk & Wagnall encyclopedia. No listing. So much for life before the internet.*
According to Wikipedia:
By delineating the edge of the pavement, they separate the road from the roadside and discourage drivers from parking or driving on sidewalks and lawns. They also provide structural support to the pavement edge. Curbs can be used to channel runoff water from rain or melted snow and ice into storm drains.
I’m going to go with the last sentence since I live in a city that is rife with rain, melted snow, and ice. And since the storm drain grate is currently sitting on the grass between the newly installed curb and the older portion of my sidewalk. Whatever works, right?
I hope they finish the work soon. I’d really like to plant flowers in the dirt they use to refill the ditches they dug.
*Did you know that if you type -ai/ before your internet query, you won’t get an AI answer popping up first?
