Shoulder (road)
A hard shoulder, or simply shoulder, is a reserved area by the verge of a road or motorway. Generally it is kept clear of motor vehicle traffic. Shoulders have multiple uses, including:
- In the event of an emergency or breakdown, a motorist can pull into the hard shoulder to get out of the flow of traffic and obtain an element of safety
- Shoulders, especially paved or hard shoulders, increase road safety. They allow some extra space should a motorist need to take evasive action or need to recover control of their vehicle before a run-off-road collision occurs.
- Emergency vehicles such as ambulances and police cars may also use the shoulder to bypass traffic congestion
- Shoulders provide space for bicyclists to ride out of vehicle traffic
- In areas without sidewalks, pedestrians can walk on shoulders
- On curbed roadways, shoulders move the gutter away from the travel lanes. This reduces the risk of hydroplaning, and reduces splash and spray of stormwater onto pedestrians using an adjacent sidewalk.
- Shoulders provide structural support of the roadway
- Shoulders move water away from the roadway before it can infiltrate into the road's subbase, increasing the life expectancy of the road surface.
- In some urban areas, shoulders are used as travel lanes during peak commuting hours.
Read more about Shoulder (road): General Characteristics, Use As Bus-only Shoulder, Peak Period Use By All Traffic, Increased Cyclist Safety
Famous quotes containing the word shoulder:
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)