street gutter

{{Short description|Depression that runs parallel to a road and is designed to collect rainwater}}

File:Town of Onondaga.jpg

File:Street gutter (caño) and gutter bridge in Moravia, Costa Rica - 07.jpg

A street gutter is a depression that runs parallel to a road and is designed to collect rainwater that flows along the street diverting it into a storm drain. A gutter alleviates water buildup on a street, allows pedestrians to pass without walking through puddles, and reduces the risk of hydroplaning by road vehicles. When a curbstone is present, a gutter may be formed by the convergence of the road surface and the vertical face of the sidewalk; otherwise, a dedicated gutter surface made of concrete may be present. Depending on local regulations, a gutter usually discharges, as a nonpoint pollution source in a storm drain whose final discharge falls into a detention pond (in order to remove some pollutants by sedimentation) or into a body of water. Street gutters are most often found in areas of a city which have high pedestrian traffic. In rural areas, gutters are seldom used and are frequently replaced by a borrow ditch.{{Cite web|url=https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/6996/crwr_onlinereport05-2.pdf?sequence=2|title=Stormwater Quality Documentation of Roadside Shoulders Borrow Ditches|last1=Kearfott|first1=Pamela J.|last2=Barrett|first2=Michael E.|date=May 2005|website=Texas ScholarWorks|publisher=Center for Research in Water Resources, The University of Texas at Austin|access-date=12 March 2018|last3=Malina|first3=Joseph F. Jr.}}

When urban streets do not have sanitary sewers, street gutters are made deep enough to serve that purpose as well; responsibility for operation and maintenance of the dual-purpose street gutter was cooperatively shared between the local government and the inhabitants.{{Cite journal|last=Jørgensen|first=Dolly|date=2008-08-13|title=Cooperative Sanitation: Managing Streets and Gutters in Late Medieval England and Scandinavia|journal=Technology and Culture|language=en|volume=49|issue=3|pages=547–567|doi=10.1353/tech.0.0047|pmid=18831288|s2cid=26332515 |issn=1097-3729|url=https://ltu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:978279/FULLTEXT01}}

A now obsolete word meaning a street gutter is a kennel.