"Nightmare bollards"

[musicalfrog]

I've watched this video a couple of times and can't understand what it is they are hitting and why they can't see it's too narrow for their vehicle.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-60203582

Isn't it obvious? Width restricting bollards to prevent wider vehicles (buses, I think) have been installed and the cars are hitting them. Presumably it's because they're driving too fast or without enough care, as it looks like most drivers are managing to negotiate them just fine despite being in bigger vehicles!

Having just read another article on them, the road has been narrowed to 7 foot and the bollards are 2 foot high (thus meaning wing mirrors won't be damaged). 7 foot is massive! I drive a van for work, it's about 21 foot long, and even that is only just under 6 foot wide. So it's definitely driver error.

Terrible driving standards then. I thought it was something outside of the norm hence so many people hitting it.

Wasn't this the one where a police van got stuck??

The bollards are built into the kerb. Normally they are set back slightly so that would affect driver perception.

If they can't accurately judge a gap I'm not sure they should be driving!

The bollards aren't writing off cars, drivers with poor perception of their position in the road are.

However, the frequency of incidents suggests there's something decidedly suboptimal about the design of this particular width restriction. Probably just needs something like a curb or rumble strips ahead of the bollards would give badly positioned drivers a warning so they could correct their position/slow as required.

Found them on Google maps. I think it's just that the bollards are right at the edge of the curb, and people aren't registering that.

www.google.com/maps/@51.675597,-0.3793403,3a,75y,205.29h,76.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1se_MF_5Xp8MJlJ79EWZwlQQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

I think it's a slightly unusual set up, we have a few width restrictions near where I live, all are also 7ft wide but our local ones only have 1 bollard on each side (this seems to have a series of them?) and only 1 is right on the kerbside. I''ve seen a few people mount the kerb with ours but nothing like happens in that clip because the bollards are further over.

I only have a fairly narrow car and sail through ours at 25mph :)

They don't extend further than the kerb so surely those hitting them must be mounting the kerb to do so.

The guy who loves by the bollards has a tiktok account where he posts videos from his cctv or ring doorbell. Yes, it's the one where a police car got stuck. Some people seem to have a disaster even if they're going through slowly. but plenty of others I assume get through fine.

That road looks narrower than seven feet to me. And the first bollard on the left looks ever so slightly on the wonk.

My car is 6'6 wide and the width restrictors where I used to live in SW London could be a bit tense but I never hit one.

It must be something, that video shows cars of all sizes hitting the thing, from little Toyota Aygo things to SUVs to vans.

If the council is actually acting it must be a genuine problem!

Also, anyone else think that Nightmare Bollards sounds like a song title from Half Man Half Biscuit?

That is really narrow. 10cm to spare either side of an average width van.

If people are writing cars off that frequently, you have yo conclude it's the design at fault really

You know the excuse the Colston 4 used to pull that statue down ?

If ever there was a case for citizen action it's this. Or are they waiting for an ambulance to get stuck ?

Whatever happened to the guy that went around angle grinding wheel clamps off ? Maybe he could come out of retirement ?

This was just the news last year; it had about a 2-minute complilation of cars hitting the bollards, with views from different angles and some dash cam footage. Lots of vehicles get through fine, and then every now and then, some numpty goes through at speed or too far over to one side and totals their car. From that previous complication video, you can see that it is entirely down to human error.

@DGRossetti

You know the excuse the Colston 4 used to pull that statue down ?

If ever there was a case for citizen action it's this. Or are they waiting for an ambulance to get stuck ?

Whatever happened to the guy that went around angle grinding wheel clamps off ? Maybe he could come out of retirement ?

If you watch the video, that happens

The police van is in that clip, bet they were