{{Short description|Triangular plot of land used in traffic infrastructure}} thumb|Highway exit gore in Gdańsk, Poland, with a transversely lined "theoretical gore", followed by a grass-covered physical one thumb|Two diverging white lines demarcate the theoretical gore of this highway exit on Interstate 40 in Arkansas, with a grass-covered physical gore following it: In this instance, the theoretical gore contains no markings. thumb|Exit gore on Interstate 95 in Connecticut: Note the theoretical gore has been marked with chevrons.
In road and highway construction, a '''gore''' (US) or '''nose''' (UK)<ref name=DMRB>{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=http://www.standardsforhighways.co.uk/dmrb/vol6/section2/td2206.pdf |title=Design Manual for Roads and Bridges |date=Feb 2006 |page=1/2, 1.25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123140804/http://www.standardsforhighways.co.uk/ha/standards/dmrb/vol6/section2/td2206.pdf |archive-date=November 23, 2018|quote=Nose: A paved area, approximately triangular in shape, between a connector road and the mainline at a merge or diverge, suitably marked to discourage drivers from crossing it}}</ref> is a triangular plot of land, not to be driven on, where a road forks at the intersection with a second road, or merges on and off from a larger one. Gores at exit ramps occasionally have impact attenuators, especially when an obstruction such as a bridge abutment follows the gore.
The US term "gore" (describing a space) historical, representing a characteristically triangular piece of land, often designated incidentally when two surveys failed to meet. Etymologically, it is derived from gār, meaning spear.<ref name=Skeat>{{cite book|last1=Skeat|first1=Walter William|title=A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.15458|date=1901|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|page=218}}</ref>
A "virtual" (or theoretical) gore is a triangular-shaped paved space, which may lead to the unpaved area of a larger physical gore. A theoretical gore is commonly marked with transverse or chevron painted lines to discourage being driven on.
In the US, at the "theoretical gore point", a dotted white line becomes a wide, solid-white channelizing line and another wide, solid-white line angles off along the edge of the diverging road, forming an elongated white triangle in front of the gore. This as a "neutral area" with white chevron markings optionally added.<ref name=MUTCD>{{cite web |url=https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2003/part3/fig3b-08-1_longdesc.htm |title=Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices |date=Apr 2022}}</ref>
A very old example of a gore surviving as a street name in London is Kensington Gore, long completely built over and reshaped, where now stands the Albert Hall.
==See also== * Intersection (road)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Commons category inline|Gore (road)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gore (road)}} Category:Road infrastructure Category:Road surface markings
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