Dangers of Passively Safe Bollards

[cb a1]

An interesting challenge posed at a recent community meeting I attended.

There are a number of passively safe Keep Left bollards around the area (Don't know if they are from this company, but you get the idea).

The little dears in the area love them because they can use them as trampolines ... and fall off them into the path of on-coming traffic. Fortunately, these are on low speed roads and there hasn't been any actual RTCs.

I appreciate that many people will be content to just let the weans get a posthumous Darwin Award, but I wondered if anyone had heard similar stories, and more usefully, any ideas on tackling this? Can the 'tension' in the bollard be changed to make it more difficult for the kids to bend them over enough to bounce on them, but retain their 'passive safety' standard?

[Ruperts Trooper]

A possibility I foresee is that reducing the tension would increase the possibility of being flattened in strong winds

[Big L]

It worries me that the manufacturer doesn't seem to know what 'retroreflective' means.

reboundable_retroreflective1.png (8.91 KiB) Viewed 2066 times

(Image taken from the link in the first post)

[Arcuarius]

It worries me that the manufacturer doesn't seem to know what 'retroreflective' means.
reboundable_retroreflective1.png
(Image taken from the link in the first post)

'Retroreflective' refers to the sign face material attached to them. Which isn't incorrect, but I see what you're saying.

[Mark Hewitt]

A possibility I foresee is that reducing the tension would increase the possibility of being flattened in strong winds

I would have thought increasing the tension? So that the force of a car hitting is sufficient to take them down but they can't reasonably be pushed over by a person.

[Bryn666]

They're not the first gen TMP ones are they? They're notorious for being easy to knock over and then often failing to rebound completely.

They should wobble if a person starts messing with them but they shouldn't catapult anyone. Have you got a GSV of one and we'll see which make it is?

[mikehindsonevans]

The little dears in the area love them because they can use them as trampolines ... and fall off them into the path of on-coming traffic. Fortunately, these are on low speed roads and there hasn't been any actual RTCs.

I appreciate that many people will be content to just let the weans get a posthumous Darwin Award, but I wondered if anyone had heard similar stories, and more usefully, any ideas on tackling this? Can the 'tension' in the bollard be changed to make it more difficult for the kids to bend them over enough to bounce on them, but retain their 'passive safety' standard?

In Hampshire, we obviously have a bigger obesity problem:

[Chris Bertram]

We have one in Kings Heath which is regularly demolished by buses turning right - the swept path of the bus often overlaps the traffic island and its bollard. The same regularly happened with the internally-lit plastic bollard that was there before. The obvious solution of moving the traffic island back a bit doesn't seem to have occurred to the council yet.

[ronhale]

We have a series of these bollards along the Bawtry Road from the Hurst Lane junction to Bawtry. The main problem is that uncleaned and in darkness they completely disappear.

[Norfolktolancashire]

These three extra high bendy signs will be better for trampolining..........

http://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.812350 ... 312!8i6656

[tipsynurse]

Perhaps let kids be kids and play around, with traffic going slowly when they are around?

I walk mini-TN back from preschool (most parents drive). Part of it is along a busy road where the pavement is narrowed because cars park on it.

Mini-TN being a kid likes to jump in puddles, run along, fall on the 1m strip of pavement. Normal kids stuff. I've had to start walking 1m out in the road because of the number of cars still tonking along at 30mph feet from mini-TN and other kids. It's the drivers at fault, if there are kids about they should be going slow enough for bollard acrobatics not to be a problem.

[tipsynurse]

I should add that the road is perfectly wide enough both for the cars to be parked on the road, and the drivers to move further out. I think because they have removed the centre lines it encourages drivers to drive close to the kerb.

[Isleworth1961]

We've had quite a few of these installed locally in the last few years, because the local oiks seemed to take delight in having sessions going round the town putting the boot into the plastic illuminated ones. They'd regularly 'do' the only roundabout in town, their bootprints clearly still showing on the bollards when they were lying at the kerbside. Thankfully this is about the only vandalism that seems to occur around here, apart from precinct shop windows on Saturday nights. The only ones around here that obviously get taken out by vehicles are those at M5 Junction 14, and even these bendy ones seem to suffer, most likely from artics.

[Truvelo]

The Triplex bollards at this roundabout were always being demolished by errant drivers. Eventually the council gave up repairing them.

[Bryn666]

The Triplex bollards at this roundabout were always being demolished by errant drivers. Eventually the council gave up repairing them.

Surprised they survived that long. Blackburn had loads too. They were definitely a product of their time.

[jonnyf90]

I wouldn't put any trust in a company which uses an absurdly incorrect diagram of "retroreflective" to describe its product! This merely depicts reflection...

Cheers

[Big L]

Its been done...

It worries me that the manufacturer doesn't seem to know what 'retroreflective' means.
reboundable_retroreflective1.png
(Image taken from the link in the first post)

[jonnyf90]

Its been done...

It worries me that the manufacturer doesn't seem to know what 'retroreflective' means.
reboundable_retroreflective1.png
(Image taken from the link in the first post)

Yup didn't see the post when I posted mine.

[Arcuarius]

I wouldn't put any trust in a company which uses an absurdly incorrect diagram of "retroreflective" to describe its product! This merely depicts reflection...
retroreflective.jpg

Cheers

That's what the reflective material's actually called though. It's not incorrect at all.

[Big L]

I wouldn't put any trust in a company which uses an absurdly incorrect diagram of "retroreflective" to describe its product! This merely depicts reflection...
retroreflective.jpg

Cheers

That's what the reflective material's actually called though. It's not incorrect at all.

The diagram shows reflective. The product is retroreflective. There is a big difference between the two.