I've recently noticed that a lot of the plastic lit-up bollards on traffic
islands seem to be wrong - for instance, a plain white disc where there
should be a leftward arrow, or a leftward arrow where there should be two
diverging arrows, etc. Particularly bad is the route from Old Street tube
station to New North Road, where every bollard seems to be wrong. Maybe the
local kids have gone around rearranging them - it doesn't seem likely that
they could be knocked down in pairs and accidentally switched. A solution
could be to give the different styles of bollard different asymmetrical
shapes at the bottom, with matching differently shaped metal frames set into
the concrete - then it would be impossible to switch them or put them in the
right hole the wrong way around.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

On Sat, 21 Jan 2006 14:02:58 -0000, "John Rowland"
wrote:

A solution
could be to give the different styles of bollard different asymmetrical
shapes at the bottom, with matching differently shaped metal frames set into
the concrete - then it would be impossible to switch them or put them in the
right hole the wrong way around.

Ask a bollard-installer if that's a solution :-) Or ask the
storekeeper who has to stock 15 types of bollard-base. All of which
will become obsolete NEXT time some wally has a bright idea.

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...

I've recently noticed that a lot of the plastic lit-up bollards on traffic
islands seem to be wrong - for instance, a plain white disc where there
should be a leftward arrow, or a leftward arrow where there should be two
diverging arrows, etc. Particularly bad is the route from Old Street tube
station to New North Road, where every bollard seems to be wrong. Maybe
the
local kids have gone around rearranging them - it doesn't seem likely that
they could be knocked down in pairs and accidentally switched.

Assuming that you are right in what you think the bollards should be
showing, it is probably down to what the bloke fitting replacement bollards
has on board at the time. They are not going to be highly qualified traffic
engineers and probably see no problem in fitting a different bollard. The
only thing that stops you seeing keep right instead of keep left may be that
keep right bollards are very rare and unlikely to be on the lorry in the
first place.

A solution
could be to give the different styles of bollard different asymmetrical
shapes at the bottom, with matching differently shaped metal frames set
into
the concrete - then it would be impossible to switch them or put them in
the
right hole the wrong way around.

You then have the problem of ensuring that the bollard base fitting crew put
the right one in to begin with.

Colin Bignell

nightjar wrote:
"John Rowland" wrote in message
...

I've recently noticed that a lot of the plastic lit-up bollards on traffic
islands seem to be wrong - for instance, a plain white disc where there
should be a leftward arrow, or a leftward arrow where there should be two
diverging arrows, etc. Particularly bad is the route from Old Street tube
station to New North Road, where every bollard seems to be wrong. Maybe
the
local kids have gone around rearranging them - it doesn't seem likely that
they could be knocked down in pairs and accidentally switched.

Assuming that you are right in what you think the bollards should be
showing, it is probably down to what the bloke fitting replacement bollards
has on board at the time. They are not going to be highly qualified traffic
engineers and probably see no problem in fitting a different bollard. The
only thing that stops you seeing keep right instead of keep left may be that
keep right bollards are very rare and unlikely to be on the lorry in the
first place.

A solution
could be to give the different styles of bollard different asymmetrical
shapes at the bottom, with matching differently shaped metal frames set
into
the concrete - then it would be impossible to switch them or put them in
the
right hole the wrong way around.

You then have the problem of ensuring that the bollard base fitting crew put
the right one in to begin with.

Colin Bignell

In the first place the engineer who designed the traffic scheme should
have checked it before signing off the works and paying the bill. I
think this is more likely to be the result of sloppy maintenance (these
bollards are always being knocked over - preferable to the same thing
happening to people). Next time you see one that is wrong do your
community a favour and tell the Council so they can put it right sooner.

In uk.transport, John Rowland wrote:
A solution could be to give the different styles of bollard different
asymmetrical shapes at the bottom, with matching differently shaped
metal frames set into the concrete - then it would be impossible to
switch them or put them in the right hole the wrong way around.

That seems rather inflexible. I'd have a sticker on the diffuser showing
the proper sign. And, for good measure, which way it should face. :-)

--
Mike Barnes

On 21 Jan 2006 12:14:52 -0800, "umpston" wrote:

In the first place the engineer who designed the traffic scheme should
have checked it before signing off the works and paying the bill. I
think this is more likely to be the result of sloppy maintenance (these
bollards are always being knocked over - preferable to the same thing
happening to people). Next time you see one that is wrong do your
community a favour and tell the Council so they can put it right sooner.

Easily done online:

http://streetfaults.tfl.gov.uk/newfault.shtml

"Marc Brett" wrote in message
news

http://streetfaults.tfl.gov.uk/newfault.shtml

I've reported a dozen faults (more serious than bollards) on that website a
few months ago. Although they were in six different London boroughs, none
have been fixed.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

"umpston" wrote in message
ups.com...
....
In the first place the engineer who designed the traffic scheme should
have checked it before signing off the works and paying the bill. I
think this is more likely to be the result of sloppy maintenance ...

That is why I referred to the bloke fitting replacement bollards.

Colin Bignell

Mike Barnes wrote:
That seems rather inflexible. I'd have a sticker on the diffuser showing
the proper sign. And, for good measure, which way it should face. :-)

In the case of a keep left/keep right sign, it must be possible to have
a swappable sign that's fitted in a 'window' at the top and secured in
place somehow, to prevent kids playing around with it.

Then you can have an arrow either way, plus other symbols can be placed
in this 'window' so you don't need to carry a whole bollard for each
sign. You can have 'pass both sides', 'no entry', 'cycles only/no
cycles' etc.

Jonathan

In uk.transport, Jonathan Morris wrote:
Mike Barnes wrote:
That seems rather inflexible. I'd have a sticker on the diffuser showing
the proper sign. And, for good measure, which way it should face. :-)

In the case of a keep left/keep right sign, it must be possible to have
a swappable sign that's fitted in a 'window' at the top and secured in
place somehow, to prevent kids playing around with it.

Then you can have an arrow either way, plus other symbols can be placed
in this 'window' so you don't need to carry a whole bollard for each
sign. You can have 'pass both sides', 'no entry', 'cycles only/no
cycles' etc.

Good thinking.

However what I meant, and expressed poorly, was which way the *bollard*
should face.

--
Mike Barnes