Hi! You may be getting new comments on this relatively old piece as it was linked from https://josh.works/bollards on Hacker News.
I was curious: Not to debate your main point, but the pictures you show (and the places in my life, in the western suburbs of Cleveland) the guardrails seem to be installed to prevent cars from going into ditches/valleys. In fact, around my house I see a long stretch of road/sidewalk with no guardrails at all, and then there comes a span of 30 ft that passes a deep ditch (or valley, or slope) and then a guardrail pops up - yes, outside the sidewalk - but the logic (right or wrong) seems to be to prevent (only) that scenario.
Again, not to disagree, but just for me to learn: how common are "car rides up on sidewalk, hurts pedestrians" style accidents in these kind of suburb environments? Do we even have data that would let us segment that out?
I understand the sentiment, but I disagree. In the UK at least, it was the norm for years to install guardrailing in the place you describe. But, it became clear that it encouraged drivers to go faster and also, if there was an incident with a cyclist, the latter would be pinned against the railing and the outcome would be worse. It depends on the situation obviously, but loads of railing has come out and is installed much less frequently in new situations.
Its so frustrating to hear people like you say things like "but if you make the roads safer, drivers will feel safer driving faster". The answer is not to make roads less safe, stupid. If you want people to drive slower, there are plenty of road design methods to make drivers drive slower that do not also make the roads less safe. I bet you're also one of those people who opposes one-way roads because drivers feel safer driving faster on them, aren't you?
Ideally you have a bike path where both sidewalk and bike path are protected with the guardrail
(You don't have to kill one to save the other)
A long while ago, I read that trees on the outside of sidewalks make cars drive faster than on the inside - that seems to be contradicted by your claim, so I'm skeptical that guardrails would have an opposite effect
Road and city planners seem to be nearly universally incompetent idiots. How are these people getting hired?
Hi! You may be getting new comments on this relatively old piece as it was linked from https://josh.works/bollards on Hacker News.
I was curious: Not to debate your main point, but the pictures you show (and the places in my life, in the western suburbs of Cleveland) the guardrails seem to be installed to prevent cars from going into ditches/valleys. In fact, around my house I see a long stretch of road/sidewalk with no guardrails at all, and then there comes a span of 30 ft that passes a deep ditch (or valley, or slope) and then a guardrail pops up - yes, outside the sidewalk - but the logic (right or wrong) seems to be to prevent (only) that scenario.
Again, not to disagree, but just for me to learn: how common are "car rides up on sidewalk, hurts pedestrians" style accidents in these kind of suburb environments? Do we even have data that would let us segment that out?
I understand the sentiment, but I disagree. In the UK at least, it was the norm for years to install guardrailing in the place you describe. But, it became clear that it encouraged drivers to go faster and also, if there was an incident with a cyclist, the latter would be pinned against the railing and the outcome would be worse. It depends on the situation obviously, but loads of railing has come out and is installed much less frequently in new situations.
Its so frustrating to hear people like you say things like "but if you make the roads safer, drivers will feel safer driving faster". The answer is not to make roads less safe, stupid. If you want people to drive slower, there are plenty of road design methods to make drivers drive slower that do not also make the roads less safe. I bet you're also one of those people who opposes one-way roads because drivers feel safer driving faster on them, aren't you?
Ideally you have a bike path where both sidewalk and bike path are protected with the guardrail
(You don't have to kill one to save the other)
A long while ago, I read that trees on the outside of sidewalks make cars drive faster than on the inside - that seems to be contradicted by your claim, so I'm skeptical that guardrails would have an opposite effect
Damn, that’s an eye opener. Never crossed my mind before reading this.