Tuesday 13 September 2011

Bollards in the City of London

TOPIC: bollard (pronounced 'bowl-lard')
Like, in all of these cutbacks and threats to the economy, why is the City of London implanting new bollards along their streets? Heavy iron things painted in classy black, red and silver. Each one must cost a fortune (though they appear to have been manufactured in the 1990s when we were all flush [see 1992 date on one below]). There are two kinds, too: tall skinny ones and squat bulky ones. The streets getting these fixtures already have double yellow lines (indicating no parking at any time, unloading for max 40 minutes) (but then again, you have to read the regs for each London borough because they define the lines differently, especially the application time of the regs). So are these bollards to keep cars from mounting the curb during loading? There must be three cars a day that use the streets where these bollards sit. And how long will they keep their nice shiny appearance, until they rust away like all iron does? Then we will have nasty hulks squatting on the pavements (sidewalks to you folks out there). Or will they employ an army of people to repaint them periodically?




  • "A bollard is a short vertical post. Originally it only meant a post used on a quay for mooring. The word now also describes a variety of structures to control or direct road traffic, such as posts arranged in a line to obstruct the passage of motor vehicles." ...