A gore, gore point, or gore zone is a triangular

Triangle

A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....

 piece of land found where road

Road

A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...

s merge or split. When two roads merge, the area is sometimes referred to as a merge nose. The term "gore" probably originates from the dressmaker's term for a triangular piece of cloth.

Many road gores are created as a result of a surveying gore

Gore (surveying)

A gore , in parts of the northeastern United States , is an unincorporated area of a county that is not part of any town and has limited self-government ....

.

Gores on freeways in the United States are frequently marked with stripes or chevrons at both entrance and exit ramps. These help drivers entering the freeway to estimate how much time they have to match the speed of through traffic, and warn drivers improperly exiting the freeway right down the middle of a gore that they are about to run out of road. Gores at exit ramps occasionally feature impact attenuator

Impact attenuator

An impact attenuator, also known as a crash cushion or crash attenuator or cowboy cushions, is a device intended to reduce the damage done to structures, vehicles, and motorists resulting from a motor vehicle collision...

s, especially when there is something solid at the other end of the gore.