You might recognise the short, thick posts placed around parking lots of busy shopping centres, office buildings, and apartment blocks. These combined, standardised, short, sturdy posts are car bollards, and though they may appear to be simple bits and pieces of metal, they have a surprisingly large part to play in ensuring the safety of drivers, pedestrians, and cars alike.
This article will brief on what car park bollards are, why they are important, and how they help produce safer and more organised parking spaces.
Parking car bollards refer to the vertical posts used in the parking spaces to regulate the movements of the vehicles to avoid potential damage to property or unwarranted travel. They are either adjustable, removable, or include automatic ones, depending on the demands of the place.
- You will find them frequently:
- In the entries and exits of parking garages.
- Preventing pedestrian walkways.
- Near expensive assets such as payment machines or building entrances.
Although their main purpose is safety, bollards can also aid the flow of traffic and eliminate parking mayhem in a busy public place.
Why Every Driver Should Care
When manoeuvring into a tight spot, it is all too tempting to think of bollards as a nuisance, but they are done to protect you. To motorists, car park bollards:
- Prevent Vehicle Damage—They provide physical protection to cars against hitting objects like walls, poles, or costly property.
- Improve Cycling and Walking Access to the Paths of the Annexation Street—By having separate paths for cycling and walking, they minimise accidents.
- Control Accessibility—In your parking garage, bollards can prevent other vehicles from stealing your parking space in a private or reserved parking area.
- Divert Traffic Confusion—In big car parks or those with a complicated layout, these can easily direct drivers onto the right path.
In layman's terms, bollards are the unsung heroes of parking safety; you only value them after they have saved you the expense of a costly error.
Types:
Bollards are not all alike. These are some of the types of mass you may come across:
● Fixed Bollards—permanent posts installed into the ground in regions that are long-term in nature to provide safety/access control.
● Removable Bollards—Posts that can be removed so that they are used when required in applications where access needs change.
● Remote-Control or Automatic Bollards—These rising and lowering bollards can come with the push of a button, which is a great convenience to the property owner and the designated parking space.
The types are slightly different in their purpose, whereas all of them are aimed at enhancing safety and efficiency in car parks.
Safety Standards in Australia
In Australia, bollards are not set haphazardly; there are standards and ways on how bollards should be set to make them cost-effective and safe. These guidelines include things such as
● Highest visibility standards.
● Impact standards.
● Rules of placement for maximum safety and accessibility.
Such standards guarantee that bollards are not only an eye-pleasing kind of barrier; they are an approved and trusted safety device.
The Bottom Line
Bollards in car parks make organised and safe parking areas a must. They secure cars, control road traffic, guarantee pedestrians, and even prevent theft. In the case of the drivers, knowing their reason would be relevant towards getting to know why they are where they are; they are not there to block you, but are there to ensure you are safe.
Finding concrete fixed posts in a shopping mall, removable bollards at a home guest drive, or the hi-tech remote-control bollards at a high-end parking facility, they all work towards one important purpose of safeguarding people and property.
The next time you pull into a car park, give a nod to these hardy protectors; they may yet bail you out of your future parking disaster.
