Thread: One for the Engineers and Geometry people

Hello All,

I have attached a couple of photographs to provide some help in explaining what I would like some assistance to correctly describe. The first photograph was taken along the road I live on. I am on the rural end of the road so my close neighbours and I only get grassed slopes off the road. The first photograph shows the transition point between an old and a newer estate. The old estate had the vertical drop off between the footpath aka nature strip and the road - shown on the left hand side. The right hand side shows the transition from the acute (90 degree) angled old estate boundary with the sloped or laid-back new estate's kerbing.

(Yes - us English speakers write Kerbing as kerbing and not the dumping good tea into the sea mob, who spell it with a 'c'. Automatic wriggly line that tells me I have spelled Kerbing incorrectly - sod off! Cultural imperialism strikes again. The Australian national broadcaster spelling "gaol" as 'jail' on the national news - a total and utter disgrace, I say! - guess what ... another read squiggly line is produced under gaol - grrr - yet another outrage! Time to cue the "Letter to America" that some people claim John Cleese wrote. A later draft was titled NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE accessed 3rd of August 2025 from, John Cleese's Letter to the USA | Snopes.com).

Anyway, ... is my use of the term for the straight up and down vertical drop of the 'old' kerbing on the left-hand side of the first photograph as "acute angle" the correct term.

Now, quite some years ago, when I was working for a Queensland country town's local government the sloped back version of kerbing that the new estate just up the road from me would be referred to back then as "mountable" kerbing. I think it was the first time that the council I used to work for had used that 'new' style of kerb and channeling. Mountable in that motor vehicles could drive up and down the kerb relatively easily. Not like the old 'acute' angle kerb and channeling that was difficult to cross with a motor vehicle.

Can you please let me know what the correct description of the sloping back kerbing would be?

Now - as for the photograph taken of the disabled carpark and a white four wheel drive that should have been contained within the neighbouring parking space - no cross my heart - that was not a setup! To be honest I could not have thought something up like that on the spur of the moment. As a child the driver must have had difficulty colouring in at pre-school. You know the ability to colour in within the designated lines. I was about to walk into one of the local supermarkets and was going to take a photograph of their acute angle carpark kerbing. The shop only has one exit ramp in front of your entrance doors. If you do not want to take the narrow path between the shop's wall and the edge of the carpark, you have to take your own life into your own hands an play Russian roulette with the people entering and exiting into the carpark. Not a game for the faint of heart on the best of days. Then I saw how the non-disabled driver had managed to park and I thought I would capture the event for prosperity. Oh, and if a driver reverses their ute back into the parking space then no one can walk along the footpath - because, their ute tray blocks the path. Ace - hey!

Anyway - I have digressed - any assistance in how to refer to both types of angled kerbing would be most appreciated.

Wow - that was handy - the order of the photographs changed after I loaded them up. Oh well - I hope that you can work out what photograph matches which description. What is the bet if I number the photographs they will somehow reshuffle themselves. Go figure!

Kind regards
Lionel

In WA the left kerb profile would be termed a Barrier Kerb. The right side profile looks like Semi-Mountable profile. In addition we have a Mountable Kerb profile that is only 100mm height.


kerb profiles.png


BTW, the disabled bay should have yellow lines marking its extents, not white....

Cheers,
C