Tearing It Up

There is a city project going on to retrofit most intersections with these bumpy yellow ramps, called "truncated domes" or tactile warning devices to alert the visually impaired that they are about to leave the sidewalk. We walked for several blocks, trying to puzzle out the logic of the installations, with zero success. Some ramps line up nicely with their fellows across the street; some emphatically do not. Others are narrow, as pictured, while several span their corners, allowing an exit that spans nearly 180 degrees. There were a few ramps that seemed to dump you diagonally into the intersection, encouraging an X-crossing, but that couldn't be right, could it? I've read that the bumps are slippery when wet, and that folks with walkers have trouble negotiating the surface. I sure hope they help somebody.

My heart goes out to all the people displaced by the terrible fires north of San Francisco. I can't get my head around the scope of the damage.