this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
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Been saying it for years, and starting to feel like I'm going insane. How in the fuck have so many municipalities around the world, especially those concerned with vehicle-based terrorist attacks on pedestrians, not settled on bollards? If it works for embassies, military bases, and other sensitive sites, why not exclusively vehicle-free areas?
I remember, maybe last year, there was city "debate" over installing bollards at intersections to protect cyclists and pedestrians. From what I recall, NIMBYs pushed HARD against the idea, saying it was "confusing" and "dangerous" for motorists...
Anything to save lives or improve safety tends to be an automatic "NO!" in most places because of NIMBYs.
That's why certain safety projects should just move forward without public input.
You're giving me flashbacks to the implementation of traffic roundabouts in my country. They've been used for a long, long time all over the world with minimal complication, but people were talking as though the cities were reinventing the fucking wheel. Long story short, they got installed anyways and work fine - much ado about nothing lol
most conservative pushback goes like that. "This change is scary and bad!" -> change is good, actually. Often, the conservatives will then fight to defend against the thing they fought against before. It's just kneejerk emotions.
Too true, they're easy as pie, and not so tricky as a pedestrian either (the queuing feels off because of the way that cars don't automatically come to a stop at a red light).
In Oslo in Norway there's these really big and heavy cast iron flower pots. Wish more places used something like this. Something that's also pretty or serves some other purpose.
That's a really great idea, utilitarian and smells nice.
Karl Johan jumpscare
(It's always interesting when you randomly see a place you live in get posted, it feels so strange)
Det er så jævlig rart å se folk fra Norge på Lemmy.
Especially since there's like 34 people living in Norway and only one of us has heard of Lemmy. So I guess one of us is faking it and is actually just Swedish.
Det er dusiner av oss!
Norsk og Evotech fan på Lemmy? Det kan umulig være flere enn oss to…!
Haha, jeg fant på nicket selv back in the day. Vet ikke helt hva du sikter til!
Vel, om bare en av oss kan fortsette som nordmann og den andre bli dømt til å være svensk...
But yeah, I get you, it is a bit funky ^^
people in Nordic countries (and places like the Netherlands) do tend to be vastly overrepresented in the English internet, however
I'm so thrilled right now that we've gotten a bunch of bollards installed in my neighborhood, even in some places to cordon off entire blocks or direct traffic only for right turns. It's possible that I'm noticing the benefit more than someone who isn't as enthusiastic about this stuff as I am but it just feels like it lightens the whole mood and comfort level of the area.
There have been some neighbourhoods in my city where the ends of entire blocks have been redone to physically prevent access by cars. Not so simple as bollards, but running the sidewalk straight across what used to be the sidewalk and installing either giant planters or other barriers has worked well. It's a bit of a pain in the ass where one-way streets already complicate non-pedestrian access, but it's better that way IMO, as these are all residential streets anyways. Whoever was mad about it decades ago has been long forgotten by the birds bopping around, and kids playing in the street.
Republican stranglehold on finances makes bollards price prohibitive.
They also have issues with how it would interfere with running over protesters
Also NIMBYism because "they look ugly".
Which is entirely optional. You can install nice looking bollards that fit the scene (Noone complains about the bollards in Amsterdam looking ugly) or are integrated into other street furnishings (e.g. flower pots and planters)
A bollard in every pot, I say.
They have in some places. Most large events inside german cities have bollards now in my experience.
Glad to hear it, it's such a simple solution to such a serious problem.
I'm hitting a language barrier here (this was not meant to be a ballad joke but take it as you want).
I had never heard that word. I looked up images and it seem like there are two kinds: the kind that is fixed on the sidewalk, and the kind that pops up in the middle of the road. To which you are referring to?
I’m not quite sure where your confusion comes from, but a bollard is just a sturdy post. For the purposes of forming a barrier against heavy vehicles they’d be fixed in place and usually relatively strong.
There’s different kinds. some are weaker/lighter and just meant to make it difficult to accidentally drive into a pedestrian area, basically the same function as a curb but a little stronger or where you don’t want a step up/down for the pedestrians. Others are quite able to stop even heavy trucks.
The other kind you mentioned are probably rising bollards, meant to function as gates or to allow only certain types of vehicles (often buses) to pass.
You should probably assume somebody is talking about fixed bollards unless they explicitly mention retractable.
Thanks
Understandable, some of the sites I'm describing have a combination of more than one you're talking about.
Bollards are the sidewalk kind, all metal or short metal-cored concrete poles, optionally also used to protect building corners and natural gas meters on properties with vehicle traffic. The kind that pops up in the middle of roads is a security barrier, which I think are hydraulic and rise to wholly block even heavy vehicles up-to-and-including heavy trucks.