Some people obviously can't read road signs .
tinyurl.com/yf8vkl {Shortened link to www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk - DD}
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I'd love to be hearing the conversation in the 4 x 4 or MPV in the first one, that hits very hard!
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what a superb bit of kit.........plenty of warning signs, obvious you shouldn't be there, yet the selfish still persist
what a joy to the rest of us who would tour around looking for a proper parking place and then walk
even the disabled sticker lady could park somewhere decent.......... a good many of them aren't disabled anyway, it's great aunt Ethel who rarely goes out........(which obviously gives the genuinely disabled a harder time of it)
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These people deserve what they got. Signs are clearly marked. As usual they think that the signs do not apply to them.
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"ARE the bollards a danger - or a good way of controlling traffic?"
Both IMO.
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No sympathy!
Hope they are not allowed any claim against the council (taxpayer!)
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with a bit of luck plod will do them for failing to obey a road sign or Careless Driving!
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There's a pair one of the roads into Chester City Centre and they caused pandemonium for several months after they were fitted with cars being impaled. One of the local solicitors even tried to get togther a 'class action' against the council but I don't think it went anywhere. The council charges impaled drivers for the (considerable) cost of repairing the bollards.
Having said that, they are a right pain - all they do is stop private motorists using a short cut. You can still get to the other side of the barriers, but's a pointless 5-15 minute battle through traffic. And they do seem to break down very frequently, so they're either stuck down and it becomes a fre-for-all, ot stuck up so buses can't get through and have to reverse back onto a roundabout.
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There are some of these in Birmingham as well, one day the wife got caught out by the one outside M&S - they have a audible (recorded voice) warning as they rise and she was looking around to see where the voice was coming from as the bollard came up beneath her - we thought it was hilarious, we were pedestrians at the time.
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And as they were left stranded on top of the bollard, issue them with a 100 quid parking fine and maybe even a clamp. HoHoHo!!
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Anyone who saw the signs would have no sympathy. They're really bright and made up of hundreds of LEDs or something.
The Toyota Starlet driver definitely deserved it - she tried sneaking in behind a bus!
That's not to say I agree with the bollards; just that I don't have sympathy for those people.
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Agreed adam. the issue of whether to agree with the bollards or not is different.
But to ignore the signs !
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I hardly ever go into Manchester and even so, I've still seen two cars speared there, it's very entertaining.
A man in a Peugeot who I saw attempt to beat the bollard managed to get far enough to get his sump smashed which was rather messy.
Before the bollards were installed I also saw pedestrians knocked over on more than one occasion - it's a narrow bit of road that bisects 2 extremely busy pedestrian areas right in the centre of town. It's a classic rat run opportunity in that it can significantly reduce certain journey times.
The council could easily have put a camera there and raised lots of money in fines without making the road significantly safer - I do think that sadly these bollards are the only thing that will stop a lot of motorists.
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Ian, would it have been as funny if the post had risen in such a way that your wife had taken a nasty fall because of it?
There seems to be sufficient power under them to damage a car.
I am not knocking their use for restricting traffic but it seems a bit odd to use them to protect pedestrians from traffic but possibly injure them with the protection device!
The audible warning doesn't seem to be enough.
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This is an OTT solution to a problem, in the same way that you would not be happy if a PC took a sledgehammer to your car after stopping you for doing 45 in a 40 it is unreasonable that this system causes so much damage for a minor transgression.
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The drivers got what they derserve for once!
However they do look very dangouse indeed. I could imagine older pedestrians being knocked down, or a new mum walking unawares out in the middle of the road just as a bus went past and getting a pram/buggy speared.
Dispite the safety concerns I have they would seem to work and are seen as a safety device by the council. If it means less people getting injured on the roads (by cars or bollards) then it would seem a good idea. Now all we need is a pedestrain who sustained an injury from the bollards rising to sue the council.
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thanks Jonathan {p} gave me a good laugh,
that'll teach em.
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This is an OTT solution to a problem, in the same way that you would not be happy if a PC took a sledgehammer to your car after stopping you for doing 45 in a 40 it is unreasonable that this system causes so much damage for a minor transgression.
But the actual solution is just to have a bollard in the way, which doesn't seem too unreasonable. The whole 'bollard shooting up and wrecking your car' is a result of the idiots trying to speed through, not a result of the safety measure itself.
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They rise quite gently, to about 2 feet 6"or so, within the "arch" of the barrier. Not a hazard, except to numpty drivers.
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They have/had some of these in Trinity St in Cambridge.
Traffic allowed through in early morning to deliver to shops etc, rest of day rising bollards to only allow buses through. Some cars came to grief, but a cyclist was seriously injured who was travelling behind a bus and the bollard shot up as he was riding over. I have a feeling that the system was either modified or abandoned after that. Having moved awy from the area I have not been down there for some years.
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the passenger in the white van smashed the windscreen with his head. ouchy!
A friend of my wifes got hit by one of those. They had no idea and it speared the car and damaged it quite severely as well as injuring several of the elderly passengers. Quite whether these things serve their purpose or not, people are getting it wrong and getting hurt.
Maybe soft, flexible rising bollards that if hit deform. Coupled with cameras and hefty fines, should do the same job and pay for themselves.
I was told about some of these in a popular tourist town, outside a very popular landmark. Apparently old people used to lean on them/rest themselves against them. Then the wags controlling them would drop them....
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I had a run in with one of these in Barcelona a few years ago. Don't ask but the hire company never raised it as an issue ( Damage - pronounced with a French accent seems rather less emotive).
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My intial thought was also "serves them right" but on reflection I'm with Cheddar on this one.
Whether it is knowingly trying to break the law, inattention or carelessness, the resulting potential for injury and damage seems out of all proportion to the transgression.
The first car apparently has a baby in the back - that's where the couple rush to after hitting the bollards. Does that child deserve to be injured through the relatively minor transgression of the driver?
Does this mean I can now fit one of those devices used in South Africa to my car - the ones that electrocute potential thieves and shoot flames out the side to cook carjackers?
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the passenger in the white van smashed the windscreen with his head. ouchy!
A double "doh" then. The impacts seem severe enough to deploy airbags, how do tell your insurance company ?
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Leigh they were still there and working in August.
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(In response to Bill Payer's posting 19.Oct 11.55)
Bill, the Chester bollards might be 'a pain' as you put it, but they were only put in to prevent the bus lane being abused. At certain times, the queue for Tesco car park used to spill out over Cow Lane Bridge, down the bus lane and prevent inbound buses getting into Gorse Stacks.
There were around 700 vehicles a day abusing the bus lane in question.
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I think we're taking things a little out of proportion here. As nortones2 quite rightly states, they rise quite gently and would only lift a car or damage sensitive areas (such as a sump). The risk of injury to car occupants would be comparable to going over a speed bump!
They have these installed at Warwick Uni at the access points to the halls of residences. With the amount of pedestrian traffic going through there I have never heard of a student being injured by one of these rising - even when drunk! There is no audible warning either.
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Mike Farrow
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The only reason the back end of the black 4x4 lifts is the speed it was doing. Anyone wonder if it was more than 20mph, which was probably the speed limit. Probably more than 30mph in an attempt to beat the bollards - the driver was accelerating at the bollards.
There's many comments on the MEN website, and none so far support the drivers.
All of the accidents would be non-events if they were not driving at the bollards at speed. How fast do you need to travel in a Transit to crack a windscreen with your head I wonder.
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For the record, there are two sets of these things in Cambridge, and a third are going in as I write, all of which are tidal.
There were a couple of issues in the early days but now the locals have got used to them, so it's not many cars that get caught out.
They seem to work well, and each has a dedicated "slip" for bikes, so no problems there.
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We're about to have a set of these installed in one of our bus stations to prevent unauthorised vehicles making illegal short cuts. The current signage is simply being ignored.
We have had CCTV installed to monitor the inevitable incidents where drivers don't take any notice of the signs and drive into the equipment.
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The more I think of it the more I would want to participate in this as a spectator sport.........
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The anti-terrorist model of these bollards is even better........
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1w1p1raBrc
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Having watched this again, my perception is that was a kid in the back seat of the MPV given the reaction of the woman in the pass. seat.
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Looing at the video I have no simpathy, apart from the (what looks like) child in the back of the fisrst car.
BUT,
How do the cars get into that bus zone/lane anyway? are there not bollards at the other end? If not then surely a non-local could quite easily take a wrong turn and end up faced with those barriers. If that happens, how do they get out again, as it seems to be a one-way street.
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Beautiful! www.totallycrap.com/videos/videos_bollard_fun/
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Thats the same clip from the original post!
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Slightly better quality though and clearly shows the sign and the little kid in arms being taken out of the back of the black MPV
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Apparantly the bollards in manchester which were discussed here last month (they go down to let busses pass but then raise very quickly afterwards - damaging several cars trying to tailgate busses) may well break safety rules.
tinyurl.com/ycq5w4
I was in town the other day and think it would be a shame if they had to go - they are very cearly marked with bright LED no entry signs - three sets of the bollards keep cars out of a T shaped area of roads right in the middle of the shopping area.
Ironic that in protecting the safety of the handful motorists stupid and reckless enough to ignore the warnings, the DOT safety 'experts' increase the risk to 1000's of shoppers on foot.
{Moves to previous discussion - DD}
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Saw this on BBC Northwest Tonight earlier on. What gets my goat is that they're making out that the bollards just pop up as vehicles pass over them, when actually they're operating correctly and are being driven into / onto by drivers tailgating authorised vehicles.
My local authority are in the process of having these bollards fitted in a bus station to prevent unauthorised vehicles using it as a rat run. When I say in the process, they've currently got the holes in the road dug ready for fitting. It would be a shame if they were finished and had to be set up to allow tailgaters, talk about defeat the object.
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Forgot to add www.atgaccess.com for those interested in reading the manufacturers blurb relating to these bollards.
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I have posted on this topic before. I have to say I love the way the video clips posted in the last thread showed images of drivers getting their deserts but I worry about people on foot, not being aware of them and getting hit. For example think of the blind or people pushing a pram, suddenly a bollard apears under their feet/pram, what on earth???
It if helps to reduce injuries that is not enough in todays world. Injuries must not be incorporated into a design, rather they have to be subjected to 'luck'.
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Torque means nothing without RPM
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mk124 - Just to allay your fears, an audible message plays to warn of 'bollards in motion'.
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If a burglar prickles himself on your spiked fence, you get arrested and held in custody for 20 hours, yet the same government can wreck a car blow both airbags and injure people just trying to pickup a heavy item from Argos. Could only happen in Labour's Cool Brittania.
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Ashok - If you can come up with a viable alternative then please let us know. The fact of the matter is that there isn't a viable alternative available to successfully 'police' these restricted areas. These bollards are great if drivers read the signage and road markings.
I have seen footage of people driving into the Manchester bollards when they are fully raised and have been for some time. These drivers just aren't paying attention.
Your example of 'people just trying to pickup a heavy item from Argos' is just the tip of a very large iceberg. Give people an inch and they will gladly take a couple of miles.
I believe Argos do Home Delivery for a very reasonable £4.95 ;-)
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Why are they restricted areas, they never used to be, why should shopping areas be no-go areas for people in cars, yet ok for gangs of yobs? Where I live it's a waste of time going to the city centre to shop as there are so many restrictions it's like being cattle in a holding pen. We don't need this. Once used to be able to pop there in one's lunch hour and park near the shop you needed to go to, now it's a disaster 15 years and £millions of pounds later.
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>>15 years and £millions of pounds later.
How many more cars now than there used to be ?
How many mroe of them in use during the day rather than parked up ?
How is the standard of driving and driving consideration compared to 15 years ago ?
Now, I don't know the answer but I shouldn;t hink its a good one.
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why should shopping areas be no-go areas for people in cars...
Given the choice, I prefer to shop in a quiet semi pedestrianised or totally pedestrianised area any day.
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This particular part of Manchester has had a number of accidents, so to exclude most vehicles for part of the day (which is the arrangement there) seems very sensible. It makes using the area more pleasant, if you can call shoping etc pleasant:) Judging by the twits who are ramming the bollards, its no bad thing to exclude the inept.
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It seems like the usual story of having to make allowances for peoples stupidity.The woman in the silver car(in the video)stopped at them once,could see how they worked and still tried to drive through.After having their cars impaled they are also being prosecuted for driving without due care and attention,rightly so.
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If a burglar prickles himself on your spiked fence, you get arrested and held in custody for 20 hours, yet the same government can wreck a car blow both airbags and injure people just trying to pickup a heavy item from Argos. Could only happen in Labour's Cool Brittania.
The government does wreck the car, the driver does. It's a little different to a road full of potholes.
There are signs etc, all of them ignored and so the result is a knackered car.
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Aim low, expect nothing & dont be disappointed
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The government does wreck the car, the driver does.
D'oh! should've read "doesn't"
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Aim low, expect nothing & dont be disappointed
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The police should not be interested if a burglar "prickles" himself on your fence - it is a civil, not a criminal, matter.
He would just sue you for damages!
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We're forgetting some people like to gamble. So they hit the bollard trying to get in (or worse get their car impaled). What the idiot driver is forgetting is they cannot get out unless they use the same tactic. Bit too much of a risk to me.
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Maybe they should just replace the bollards with a camera on each entrance and fine every single driver who goes through £100, I'm sure nobody would complain about that or think it unfair...
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Marvellous clip - these drivers know exactly what they are doing and get what they deserve!
The Voyager is even going so fast the air bags go off! Wonder if his insurance company have seen the clip?
tinyurl.com/ya6t8a
Edited by Pugugly on 07/04/2008 at 22:41
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www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1044167_bol...s
Are they effective? What do you reckon the car driver thinks?
Edited by Mazda-Man on 07/04/2008 at 22:07
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That he wished he's taken notice of the number of very prominent warning signs perhaps.
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That he wished he's taken notice of the number of very prominent warning signs
The problem is it is so unexpected and drivers are not used to it. In the city we have a large amount of 'sign pollution', not to mention more and more complex regulations. Recently I saw JC on Top Gear making fun of new parking bays where you pay by cell phone which was completely unfathomable.
Of course it could be some are trying to 'beat the bollards', but I am not convinced. If you want to close off part of the road, then close it off to all motorised traffic.
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Ziggy,
I've seen these in situ. Unless you are doing something else (like texting, sleeping) whilst driving you can't miss them. What the signage can't allow for are the terminally stupid or arrogant.
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>parking bays where you pay by cell phone
I don't know how complicated it is in UK but it is in widespread use here in Tallinn already for some years. It is brilliantly simple and works a treat.
When you park, you just send an sms with your car reg number and zone e.g. city (centre), inner (ring road), outer. When you leave, you send the same info plus the word STOP and you are billed for the exact time used accordingly. The wardens check your reg number on the database to see if you've paid (the right zone) or not. Simple.
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Seen these before but they are still an all-time Classic! Also love the comments under the article. I reckon you should have your licence taken away for a few weeks if you hit them.
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Are they effective? What do you reckon the car driver thinks?
" Oh.....Bollards!" at a guess
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What do you reckon the car driver thinks?
That he wished he had bought a car with airbags ;o)
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I had to laugh at that City On My Mind chap, obviously experiential learning isn't (on his mind that is)
Edited by Pugugly on 07/04/2008 at 22:35
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Well, at least he can say on the insurance form the bollard jumped out in front of me!!!
Any other Cities or Towns employ these savage car wrecking devices by the way?!
Bet someone is selling/developing a hack for the system somewhere...
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I had to laugh at that City On My Mind chap
"The first time I wasn't watching what was going on - we've all been there. The second I was driving a Fiat that was quite small"
And now it's even smaller shorter.
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Linked t the original thread on this. Can't believe it was that long ago !
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Not sure if they are still there but there used to be a similar system in Hamilton ( near Glasgow ). They defended the entrance to a pedestrianised area. They were operated by a special card which was issued to those who needed access to their businesses. Remember seeing a car jacked up by one which had come up perfectly under the sump. Wheels still turning and red faced driver having to ask a nearby shopkeeper to use his card to lower the bollard. Don't think any lasting damage was done other than to pride, as the car subsequently drove off. Caused quite a few chuckles from bystanders though!
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Don't think any lasting damage was done
It would be remarkable if that was the case - it usually does a lot of damage.
There's a story on another forum of a guy whose daughter got their 6mth old car impaled at Gateshead Metro Centre on a dark wet evening. Did £8K of damage.
He found the signs were inadequate and the bollard positioning was wrong (there are rules for these things) and used his insurance legal cover to sue the Metro Centre and won.
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Don't even mention little Spanish concrete bollards too close together with tight radius corners in ancient historical Andalusian cities aaaaaargh!
Just don't mention them.
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>>What do you reckon the car driver thinks?
Really must get a new headlight! this one is letting water in!
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Those clips are certainly hilarious.
Trying to beat the machine, oh yeah, oil and water all over the road, bags gone off, burst eardrums and other injuries, how can people even try to do it? Damn funny though.
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Yeah, clearly very funny.... not.
The CRV was carrying a small baby in the rear. How funny would you find it if that baby had been injured? The deceleration was clearly enough to trigger the airbags and hurt the driver (who is seen rubbing his head).
Yes it's the drivers stupidity, nobody can deny that, but this is NOT the way to enforce a no entry. Downright dangerous.
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