Bollards don’t rely on a human operator, provide safety 24/7, and can create safe places for people to walk and congregate.

Bollards alone won’t solve this problem but few interventions offer immediate, proven benefits.

Screening measures are useful but they are susceptible to human error, require a ton of labor, are only helpful during events, and have little external benefit.

People will argue against vehicle restrictions that create safe pedestrian zones.

There’s a cost to impeding vehicle access, but it’s small for the safety benefit, relatively small O&M cost, and benefits beyond large events.

To prevent terrorism, we’ve implemented individual-focused countermeasures like bag policies and security screening at stadiums. Those have costs, but people have grown to accept them over time.

Preventive safety requires multiple, layered interventions, including bollards.

There are so few deaths on a Dutch roads because they implement safety interventions *systematically.* In the US we use underpasses, but often as a one-off, ad hoc treatment.

High speeds don’t mix with walking and cycling. Separate them systematically.

Also going to try this. Thank you!

My students are brilliant. They can memorize and apply equations easily. I think this helps them experience the infrastructure like the people they serve. “Feeling” the infrastructure gives them some insight to how the guidance and equations work…or not.

For example, if I have them watch a video about signal timing, we’ll go to intersections with leading pedestrian intervals, beg buttons (vs. passive detection), and the students experience them. This is for my introductory transportation engineering class.

When we possible, I plan for the next class to be “in the field.” I look for instances of the concept around campus and we go and check them out.

Early in the 20th century, many civil engineers considered promoting and protecting health as their primary objective. That’s why water systems are some of our greatest achievements.

Transportation engineers are public health professionals and we need to get back into the public health mindset.