median strip

American  

noun

1. a paved, planted, or landscaped strip in the center of a highway that separates lanes of traffic going in opposite directions.

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median strip British  

noun

1. the US term for central reserve

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Etymology

Origin of median strip

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

Unlike elsewhere on the autobahn, the median strip on this 3.5-mile section isn’t grassy but solid tarmac.

From The Wall Street Journal

More than a decade of homelessness followed, at times spent sleeping in a median strip that stretches along the neighborhood’s main drag.

From Los Angeles Times

Many visitors littered, parked in driveways and in some cases dodged traffic to take photos from the bridge’s median strip, residents said in interviews.

From New York Times

That same year, encampments had taken over a median strip owned by the city at Cahuenga, Franklin and Wilcox Avenue — a triangle-shaped site featuring a vertical Hollywood sign and a veterans memorial.

From Los Angeles Times

“A few miles south of Madera, in the median strip of Highway 99, stand a palm and a pine — symbolic of Southern and Northern California and much beloved by all who know what they’re driving by. When Caltrans tried to cut them down, a great outcry put a stop to that. When the pine — actually a cedar — was later blown down in a windstorm, a replacement was planted.”

From New York Times