The gore

The gore. It sounds ominous, like a void in space in a Sci-fi flick. A place of great peril. And it sort of is.

What is the gore, you ask? The gore was explained to me by Buzz Powell, an Auburn engineer who has done traffic design, and was my wife’s high school sweetheart. He said the MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Code Devices, in case you wondered) defines a “gore” as a neutral or nontraversable area used to separate conflicting movements and improve safety. An example is the triangle where two perpendicular streets come together, with a right-hand lane that is far enough away that there is a grassy island created in the roadway. You know, where the trash and cigarette butts live. 

Of course you don’t drive in that area. But let’s say instead of a grass island, DOT paved that area and painted a bunch of parallel white lines on the pavement. It’s now called a theoretical gore, but a gore nonetheless. Buzz says he thinks surveyors brought the term into the traffic lexicon.

Now I’m going to really expand the definition. Those painted lines you ignore traveling westbound on Hwy 96 and approaching Houston Lake Road? You might recall that the right-hand lane first terminates into the shopping center. Then some white stripes. Then another right turn, mainly for McDonald’s. Then more white lines. Then the lane turns right for Houston Lake Road. Those white stripes are meant to be obeyed. That area covered by the white stripes is called the “gore.” It is illegal to drive across those white lines, but y’all bunch of yahoos do it every single day. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-50(b). 

Should law enforcement see you do it, they can issue you a ticket. If you cause an accident doing it, you are at fault. I know it’s convenient jumping into the right lane prematurely, say in front of Longhorn’s on Watson, so you can then turn right on red without stopping to merge onto Houston Lake, but that just means you broke two traffic laws pretty quickly.

Now, why is that area called the gore? It derives from the German word “gar,” meaning spear. Recall that I mentioned the triangle where streets intersect. So gore derives from the triangular tip of the spear. It turned into gore, and now it has melded to mean any white lined area of pavement. I somehow made it to 66 years old before I ever heard this term. I’m still learning something new every day.

Update on my bidet! I bought a raised toilet seat to help me get off the throne. It helps a lot. The bidet that came with it has an intensity dial. It goes from a nice, soothing spray up to a garden hose at full volume. It will about knock you off the seat. Trust me on that.

Kelly Burke was born in Knoxville where he spent his younger years, followed by high school years in Atlanta where he graduated from Georgia Tech, and then graduated from Mercer Law School. He has been in private practice, a magistrate judge, and an elected district attorney. He writes about the law, politics, music, and Ireland. He and his wife enjoy gardening, playing with their Lagotto Ramanolo named George Harrison, and spending time with their grandchildren.