Bollards.

There was a time when I thought this story was an urban myth. Thankfully, these days we have YouTube to dispel such wanton thoughts within seconds and, as with many things in life, the You and the Tube happily hosts a number of examples. The story to which I refer is that concerning a set of traffic control bollards on a street that runs through a mostly pedestrianised section of the city centre. For obvious reasons, private vehicles are not wanted on such a stretch of carriageway but on occasion access is required for other people – emergency services and buses, for example. So the bollards work very simply and you need a little electronic thing (I don’t know exactly what it looks like) in your vehicle to lower them and allow you to pass over the top. They then, as you might expect, return to their natural, upright, protruding state.

The problem arises when impatient/stupid/arrogant (delete as you see fit) people think they can sneak in behind a bus or ambulance and scoot over the bollards before they have a chance to pop back up again. You can see where this is going, right? Well, you are correct. Have a look:



What did I tell you – stupid. Well, the council agree and so fed up are they of paying out to repair these bollards that they’re going to start prosecuting anyone who lumbers blindly into such a predicament, to cover the costs of repairing them. Fair enough, I say. There’s plenty of warning, after all (signs and lights and stuff), and, well, it’s not hard, is it? Just go the other way.