Sidewalk barriers

[buildup]

These 'temporary' barriers designed to prevent trucks from mounting sidewalks, plowing into pedestrians are becoming ubiquitous downtown. They are flourishing everywhere. The worst are simply blocks, the others are long and wedge-shaped. Often they are scattered around new plazas etc.

Should the city sponsor design competitions for colourful, heavy, concrete, anti-terrorism sculptures?

 

[jje1000]

I think the key to these barriers is in minimizing their profile- pedestrians should get through easily enough to preserve the permeability of a site, but a dump truck should slowed to an extent where pedestrians can get to safety beyond the initial shock.

As such, a network of bollards subdividing public space into compartments would work best beyond concrete barriers.

 

[DSC]

We are certainly not the only City with this problem and looking at Google streetview for 'other world class cities' can give one useful ideas. I have seen them as planters, as 'classy' bollards, as solid street furniture (e.g. benches) and as 'displays'. The ones we have are (I hope!) temporary - they MAY be effective but they are SO ugly and serve no other purpose.

 

[SunriseChampion]

I don't see why they are necessary at all.

It's a foolish knee-jerk reaction to a rare event.

So we put these up in order to prevent an incident that may happen once in a decade (or just once thus far, as in actual fact) yet people die of gun shot wounds every other week and the response to that is in inverse proportion to the overreaction here with these barriers.
*slow clap*

Well done, society!

 

[TrickyRicky]

MTown, you'll be even more thrilled next year when the City starts enforcing it's street barrier security policy for street festivals. We can draw up a list of street festival casualties.

Real rough numbers for generic street festival 2017 policing $4000, 2018 policing $13000, 2019 policing >$13000 + street barrier service estimate $32000. I wish I could be generating investment returns to match those 10 bagger levels of cost inflation!

 

[Skeezix]

And it turns out the concrete barriers seem to largely be ineffective anyway at stopping trucks from ploughing into crowds of people.

 

[SunriseChampion]

And it turns out the concrete barriers seem to largely be ineffective anyway at stopping trucks from ploughing into crowds of people.

So a non-functioning over reactive stain?

Brilliant.

You know what else they don't stop?
Bullets and explosives.