• FuckyourFeels@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    23rd Street, Santa Monica. August 9, 2026, a driver in a green truck runs over bollards in the protected bike lane. On August 19, Councilmember Dan Hall reports that the Santa Monica Police Department “has identified the vehicle and owner. They have had the vehicle towed for expired registration and are following up with the owner on the vandalism of public property.” @electdanhal Santa Monica has built 119 of the 187 miles of bikeway in its Bike Action Plan. Roughly five of those miles are protected. The half-mile on 23rd Street is protected by plastic barriers called “armadillos” while other areas, such as 17th Street are protected by concrete curbs.

      • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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        21 days ago

        You got all of that wrong somehow, while extracting numbers from that one paragraph.

        • 119 miles in total.
        • 5 of them protected, so 114 colored lines.
        • Of the protected ones this half-mile with these plastic bollards, 17th street with concrete curbs. Share of bollards to curbs not explicitly disclosed.
      • taiyang@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        I live near enough to know the layout and while it’s mostly just colored line, the streets are still usually bike friendly, assuming you don’t see this nonsense.

        What SM did was actually reduce parking to the point that it forced biking or bussing (and made permits for remaining spots, lol). Driving remains is almost all single lane torture with a 25 mph limit, single because when I was a kid it was two lanes and they decided they wanted a dedicated bike lane (specifically thinking Broadway but probably others).

        SM is a small place, too. A ton of those miles are in residential areas with little room for expansion.

      • Hildegard (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        21 days ago

        The goal should be to protect vulnerable road users. Solid metal or concrete blocks would be better because they would actively prevent cars from entering the bicycle lane.

        The goal should be safety. A single solid pole in a line of breakaway poles is spiteful.

        • DudleyMason@lemmy.ml
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          20 days ago

          I’m 100% on board with being spiteful to carholes. My only note on the suggestion is that hitting the concrete one and disabling your car should be considered sufficient evidence on its own to convict the driver of attempted murder.

          • Hildegard (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            20 days ago

            A car entering a bike lane by accident is just as deadly as one that enters out of malice. Which is why the bollards should be solid, and visibly so. The dividers should prevent cars from entering.

            These bollards are designed to collapse as they did. They are designed to be visible markers, rather than physical barriers. These are bad by design. Lawmakers are more concerned with avoiding airbag deployments than safety.

            A single breakaway post that doesn’t break away is not the solution. Though I would never snitch on someone secretly who filled one with concrete overnight.

            • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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              20 days ago

              The collapsible bollards are often to allow emergency services to take the lane as cyclists should be evacuating such lanes upon hearing sirens until it becomes clear their lane isn’t needed

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      I was thinking they should be connected with a steel cable at the bottom, and a hook inside the plastic shell, so if a car hits them, they grab on and start slowing the car down.

      • Hildegard (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        21 days ago

        No. Each post should be solid enough to stop, or significantly slow a car on its own. They need to be built to protect vulnerable road users from cars. Slowing the cars gradually does not do that.

        Cables under tension can snap back which makes your idea even more dangerous than just a concrete block.

        • Archimedes@sh.itjust.works
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          21 days ago

          You need to promote it as “anti-terrorist hardening to protect cars from terrorist ramming attacks”. It’s more likely to get support.

        • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          Eh, there are genuine situations where you don’t want to stop the vehicle immediately, like say if this trucker came up on the other side and pushed the filming car into the bike line. Having a controlled line that brings the vehicle to a stop is much safer than having concrete and steel barriers that just shred the car and the occupants. Similar cable systems are already installed to stop cars, so the engineering has been done to prevent those dangerous snap-backs.

          • Hildegard (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            21 days ago

            Those systems are designed to dissipate the forces by crumpling and creating debris that is thrown away from the middle of the road. The crash panels at the start of cable systems and guardrails are designed to launch debris in a colission. Incredibly dangerous for cyclists or pedestrians, which is why they are installed at road edges. They are completely unsuitable to be barriers between different types of traffic.

            Highway medians are almost always concrete walls. There is a reason those cable systems are not used between lanes of traffic.

            • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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              21 days ago

              Highway medians are almost always concrete walls

              Funny you mention this, because most highway medians are a W profile ditch, or a cable catch system (which is similar to what I described).

              • Hildegard (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                21 days ago

                I’m referring to urban highways where opposing lanes are right next to each other, like the sort of spacing that you would need for a barrier next to a bicycle lane. Those cable systems are only installed in cases where there is generous clearance for debris, which is not applicable for the roadside bicycle lanes we are discussing.

                Admittedly it would be much safer for those in the bike lane if we dug a W profile ditch in pace of the car lanes. For some reason I don’t see that happening.

  • Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    That’s why where I live (europe) those bad boys are full steel planted on the ground and not some wobbly noodles.

    • db_null@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      20 days ago

      Sadly not everywhere yet. From cycling in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland a good bit this summer I see too many places where there is no bollard at all, just a line drawn on the ground that many ignore. Switzerland in particular was not fun to cycle in

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      I think they’re this way in some places to allow emergency services to use them as a dedicated lane (cyclists should move to sidewalks and stop when hearing sirens)

    • dan69@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      You just gave me a boner… uh I want those soo bad too! But the only reason why I think it’s like that here in US cities bc potential need for emergency vehicles cases.

      • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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        20 days ago

        Better protected bike lanes = more cycling trips = fewer car trips = fewer cars in the way of emergency vehicles = no need for emergency vehicles to shift into the bike lane mid-block

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    and this is why I couldnt give a single fucking shit about any law that says bikes cant be on sidewalks/must be on roads or whatever.

    because every fucking car is a hostile, imminent threat to a person on a bike.

    And even the sidewalk isnt that safe, I’ve personally been on a sidewalk that had 4 feet of grass between me and the road and STILL have had assholes swerve through the verge to try and scare me/knock me down/make me crash/whatever their sociopathic intent.

    edit: and yes, it was by an asshole in a truck. Its almost always an asshole in a truck.

    • azimir@lemmy.ml
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      22 days ago

      You mean people with non-micropenises. Only jealous or fearful people carry that much hate around.

      • Courtney (she/her/they) @lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        22 days ago

        Excuse me, as someone with a small package I would never do this.

        They’ve got “pathetic whiny bitch energy” though. Probably complains about woke DEI antifa bike lanes to other dudes who take low angle photos in their trucks with oakleys on.

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      If you were paying 2k a month on a luxury truck loan to pay 6 bucks for a gallon of gas to go 11 miles at traffic speeds slower than a bike on the shoulder, you too would be incredibly stupid and irate.

      Also, that truck driver needs to have their license pulled indefinitely and the truck impounded. That’s multiple murder attempts happening in a few minutes. I don’t give a fuck if public transport sucks, or if you are crippled and can’t walk anywhere. Should have thought of that before you tried to kill someone multiple times with your truck.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      20 days ago

      One of these days I want a cyclist to pull a gun on someone pulling this shit. I know pickup drivers are often armed and typically feel safe in their giant trucks. But you drive through the protected cycle lane you should be at risk of being shot by someone fearing that you may continue attempting to attack them.

      At least in gunland

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
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    20 days ago

    I’ve never wanted just one of those to be a concrete bollard so badly…

    Make it the same height and color, and just place it somewhere randomly within all the plastic ones 😈