Did you know there was a name for those yellow panels of little bumps on curb ramps that hurt your feet when you wear shoes with thin soles? I didn’t. Not until I came across the term and looked up what it meant.
Those things are called “truncated domes.” If you look at them closely, those bumps do look like tiny domes cut off around the middle. But they could call them “yellow curb bumps” just as well. They’re intended to let blind pedestrians sense where the sidewalk ends.
What made me think of this is that the Oregon Department of Transportation has just issued its latest annual report on rebuilding curb ramps so they comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act…