Re: How wide are your shoulder stripes?

Jasper Janssen said:

By 'shoulder stripe' do you mean just the white line along the side
of the road, or the distance from said line to the actual end of the
concrete/asphalt?

Technically it's called a "fog line" -- to help drivers see the edge of the road
in fog.

BTW, they're all different widths around here. Some have eroded, and others
have been painted over a few times, obscuring the width as applied. I haven't
come across any brand new ones in awhile. There's new asphalt, but they ain't
got 'round to paintin' the lahns on yet.

Matt O.

Jasper Janssen said:

Quoted message said:

A spate of highway and city road re-paving and a growing
suspicion that I take too much for granted led me to measure
some freshly painted shoulder stripes this afternoon.

Where are you, and how wide are your actual shoulder
stripes?

Well, my old sergeant always said...

Quoted message said:

(Not minimum acceptable widths decreed by regulation, but
what your ruler shows when laid across a stripe. You do
carry a ruler for these crucial matters, don't you?)

By 'shoulder stripe' do you mean just the white line along the side of the
road, or the distance from said line to the actual end of the
concrete/asphalt? Here in .nl, the stripes themselves appear to be fairly
uniform (somewhere in the range of 10-15 cm, I've never measured), when
they're there at all (which isn't often in the city, on bike paths, or on
highways). However, in France there appear to be a fair lot of places that
have stripes no more than a centimeter wide. I am unsure whether these are
temporary markings so the real striplayer knows where to go, or a new
technology.

Jasper

Dear Jasper,

I mean the width of the white paint stripe, which you're
estimating at 10-15 cm (4 to 6 inches) in the Netherlands.

Possibly English pronunciation led to the confusion?

A terminal -e usually signals that the preceding -i- changes
from a short ("did"😉 to a longer -i- ("I"😉:

The broad shoulder strip is marked by a narrow paint stripe.

Mick and Mike are different.

Tim is on time.

A whip is not a wipe.

A writ is something that we write.

Spit on someone to encourage their spite.

We can flick a Bic, but we ride a bike or trike.

You sip and drip, but cut a sipe in a tire.

Words with -ir change a slightly different -er or -ur sound
to the same "I" when an -e is added:

The fir tree is on fire.

Sir, you're not my sire.

Thanks for the estimate,

Carl Fogel

Matt O'Toole said:

Jasper Janssen said:

By 'shoulder stripe' do you mean just the white line along the side
of the road, or the distance from said line to the actual end of the
concrete/asphalt?

Technically it's called a "fog line" -- to help drivers see the edge of the road
in fog.

BTW, they're all different widths around here. Some have eroded, and others
have been painted over a few times, obscuring the width as applied. I haven't
come across any brand new ones in awhile. There's new asphalt, but they ain't
got 'round to paintin' the lahns on yet.

Matt O.

Dear Matt,

What's your narrowest stripe? And where's "around here"?

Foggily,

Carl Fogel

Quoted message said:

What's your narrowest stripe?

I'll guess three inches.

Quoted message said:

And where's "around here"?

Southwest VA. It should be the same all over VA, but...

Matt O.

Quoted message said:

Jasper Janssen said:

By 'shoulder stripe' do you mean just the white line along the side of the
road, or the distance from said line to the actual end of the
concrete/asphalt? Here in .nl, the stripes themselves appear to be fairly
uniform (somewhere in the range of 10-15 cm, I've never measured), when
they're there at all (which isn't often in the city, on bike paths, or on
highways). However, in France there appear to be a fair lot of places that
have stripes no more than a centimeter wide. I am unsure whether these are
temporary markings so the real striplayer knows where to go, or a new
technology.

I mean the width of the white paint stripe, which you're
estimating at 10-15 cm (4 to 6 inches) in the Netherlands.

Possibly English pronunciation led to the confusion?

A terminal -e usually signals that the preceding -i- changes
from a short ("did"😉 to a longer -i- ("I"😉:

The broad shoulder strip is marked by a narrow paint stripe.

Mick and Mike are different.

[..]
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

(etcetera, variously credited to John o'Mills, Shaw, and others)

Jasper

Matt O'Toole said:

Quoted message said:

What's your narrowest stripe?

I'll guess three inches.

Quoted message said:

And where's "around here"?

Southwest VA. It should be the same all over VA, but...

Matt O.

Dear Matt,

The reason that I'm asking how wide road stripes are is that
earlier guesses, theories, or possibly even measurements
taken elsewhere failed to stand up when I finally checked
with a ruler.

I'm curious if the road stripes in Colorado are typical,
super-model thin, or trophy-size.

Carl "Do these stripes make me look fat?" Fogel