Video Clip, what is it?
 

http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=515

I'm not sure exactly what's going on, but it's slightly funny.

Does anyone know why those certain cars can't get through and only the buses, etc can?

Maybe it's like an EZ Pay system toll road.

An attempt at urban traffic control? Only some vehicles have an RFID device that allows it to enter -- others don't. It would seem that a breakaway gate would cause less damage and then not leave the vehicle hanging and blocking traffic. But then you'd be using up lots of gates.

I like the good old days of tire slicing bars preventing you form going in the out.

Looks like the people behind the busses were trying to beat the system and hurry up behind the bus to get through.

Seems a bit harsh?

It looks dangerous as hell. No safety mechanism, like garage doors have, for instance.

It IS traffic control - the area the cars are trying to access is obviously pedestrianised. The van that gets through is Royal Mail (ie the Post Office)

Can't say where exactly but it's definitely Britain. Many city centres have similar devices, but they react more slowly - I think this particular city decided it had had enough of people trying to beat the system.

Serves them right I say - this area will be VERY clearly marked I assure you, you can tell by the way the cars have tried to tailgate that they know they are in the wrong.

The guy in the black SUV looks like he may have sustained a concussion. They also rushed to get their child out of the back seat. The last guy's windshield is broken where his head may have hit.

How about heavy fines instead of bodily injury?

It looks like he hit his airbag to me.

I say - how about not driving through a prohibited area for not scaring the crap outta you?
Rather than the time & money it takes to process fines the Mercedes driver can well afford. He won't be trying that again in a hurry.

(I'm not very sympathetic when it comes to traffic violations I'm afraid)

An airbag will crush your windshield like that?

I'm sure word will get around that you can't play that system and win...at least I hope so before someone's kid gets killed.

That child should have been in a carseat. If she wasn't then the father is doubly to blame - first in endangering his family by irresponsible driving, second by not adhering to the law by securing his child properly.

I would rather not see children injured by their own parents' decisions, but it is better than allowing drivers with no regard for the law into pedestrianised areas where they will put other people's children in danger, surely?

Yes. It also fills the car with dust, which you can see coming out when the door is opened.

I'm guessing the kid was in a carseat.

Well, I'm guessing the child was in a car seat, and probably not injured, hopefully.

I'm not sticking up for the driver's with no regard for the law...I hate that, too. It just seems a bit harsh, like I said. Say the child was not in a car seat, and was injured. Parent's fault, absolutely, but a brain injured or whatever child seems a harsh punishment.

I do see where you're coming from - and I agree it's harsh. It's just I like harsh in this situation. It's one of the few issues where my usual liberal coating has worn thin and the right wing reactionary is showing through.

I also advocate buses being able to shunt cars in the bus lane out of the way...

I have a couple of those myself. :)

If you watch, the black SUV *speeds up* to try to make it. You can also see the drivers side airbag go off.

That's more than slightly funny, that thar is hee-larious. Too bad a kid may have potentially been hurt though.

The posts stop moving upward as soon as something hits them. That sounds like a safety mechanism to me. Unless you expect them to be intentionally ineffective and break when a car hits them?

These are the same type of idiots who would speed up to run a red light, putting everyone else's lives in danger. They are deliberately irresponsible drivers and they deserve whatever damage happens to their car or body.

Okay "no functional safety mechanism" (and since we're splitting hairs: how are the cars lifted off the ground by a pole that isn't moving?) Which part of my post did I suggest that? Oh that's right, I never did. You're just making stuff up.

No, I was asking. Hence the question mark. Let me rephrase: Please explain clearly what sort of safety mechanism you expect them to have.

Are purple monkeys flying out of your ass? Nothing to date has suggested this, I'm simply asking. With a question mark.

Instead of the cars being rudely and suddenly stopped, the thing should create some sort of bouncy ramp, so they're comically catapulted into the air.

I'm not a traffic engineer, so it isn't my job to figure this out. The design of these mechanisms looks dangerous.Okay, sometimes an "armchair traffic engineer" has the best ideas. I stand corrected.

No, I'm wrong, it should be a MOAT. To let the bus pass, a steel bridge drops down. After the bus has gone, it opens to a 15 foot long, four foot deep pit of water. The beauty is, the lift for the bridge doubles as a crane to pull the vehicle out in 15 minutes.

Okay, to clearly answer the questions you've asked: 1.) No, purple monkeys are not flying out of my ass, 2.) The cars are lifted off the ground by their own forward momentum as well as the slight continued upward momentum of the pole in the fraction of time it takes to register that something has hit it, and 3.) You never suggested my sarcastic description of a possible safety mechanism in your post; I posted it to express how I found your post to be lacking in information as to what your opinion is:

I swear to God I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, I'm trying to understand your point in making this statement. So let's back up: Do you believe that the poles should have a safety mechanism, as you noted they do not?

Not punitive enough. They should have a 60 second timer before the car is crushed into a 3x3 cube.

In 60 seconds the car couldve passed by then.

no no, I don't want to get rid of the posts. They are for holding the car there until it can be crushed. Obviously the people inside fancy themselves as speedy, it should be plenty of time to get out.

crushed? Did I miss something? ..

I think perhaps yes.

Time to go watch that video again..

Keep watching, you'll see the crushing eventually, I promise.

If you're talking about the cars getting hit because their speeding, I don't see anything wrong with that. It's their fault..

I'm not familiar with the traffic area these device are operating in, or what specific problem they are designed to prevent, but I do believe (based on the scant evidence of this video) that whiplash and a totalled car for the offender is an excessive outcome, for what I am assuming was intended as some sort of safety device (see the irony there?) . . .

I'm going out on quite a limb to say: there must be a better way to do this. I don't know what it is, and I'm not going to pretend to know.

A Jersey wall has the same result if you just try to drive through it. This one just removes the need for a crane when you want to let authorized vehicles through.

Ah, see this is where the miscommunication comes from. It's not a safety device, it's a device intended to keep cars from driving in an area they're not allowed to drive in. Obviously signs didn't do the job, so they had to resort to sturdier measures. What these idiots in the video have done is equivalent to setting up a ramp to try to jump their car Dukes-of-Hazzard-style over a wall that they know is intended to keep them out.

I disagree that you're going out on a limb. You are expressing an opinion where none was expressed before. I, on the other hand, personally think this is an excellent way to deter people from driving in these areas, and do not necessarily think there must exist a better way at all.

Unless we just immediately gunned down all violators. ;)

The afforementioned tire-popping strip might perhaps stop the vehicle without greivous bodily harm, no?

Possibly. Some problems with that are:

A.) Buses still must get through, so the tire-popping strip would have to move up and down to let approved vehicles through
B.) The area is meant for pedestrians (which is why cars aren't supposed to go through there in the first place,) leaving a good possibility someone will accidentally step on the spikes and cut up their feet. I'd rather injure the defiant drivers than the innocent pedestrians.

Better still... a tire popping strip doesn't prevent the vehicle from entering the area. If that's the objective, then running on four flats in the restricted area is hardly evidence of an effective deterrent.

Wait a minute, how the fuck is it safe to let a bus drive on a sidewalk ???

Aha! Now there's a point I wasn't sure how to get at. Watch dude get off the bus...he's barely to the bottom step before the bus driver starts to drive off, so I won't accept "the bus drivers are trained for safety" idea. :cool:

when the sidewalk's a driveway?

oh wait. miscommunication. I was saying that the posts aren't punitive enough. There should also be a car crusher that makes the offending automobile a 3x3 foot cube of metal after 60 seconds.

I'm not soft on traffic offenders, when I understand the specifics of the situation. Here's an example:But seriously, in the real world I didn't think they had such brutal traffic enforcements in place.

Oh I see. That clarifies things for me... not at all.
Next question: why are pedestrians walking down a bus driveway?
Next question: where are the drivers trying to get to, down a bus driveway?

So...these pillars prevent cars from driving on the fucking sidewalk ???

We don't have that problem here in the USA, so I'm trying to understand.

Ahh, gotcha. I'm hoping thats humor, because I'd rather not see a smashed up child.

Correction: smashed up traffic offender.

No correction needed, the kids of a dumbass parent shouldn't have to suffer for their screw-ups. Same goes for another adult passenger unrelated to the driving idiot.

If these drivers were trying to cheat the system, that would mean that they knew the system in the first place. If they knew the system in the first place, they would have known that you can't cheat it. It's just too damn fast. That's why I think it's confusion and not malice that leads to their actions, and I think these devices are far too violent in this situation.

The driver of the first car is the only one who deserves some real blame. He saw the barricades initially, backed up to let the bus by, and then tried a second time. The other drivers couldn't see the barricades, because they were hidden from view by the buses/vans in front of them. One foolishly tried to speed up to miss the barricade and failed, the other didn't see it at all until it was too late.

I've driven in foreign countries, and it can be confusing. When you are in an urban area, and there is a hustle and bustle, it's easy to get overwhelmed to the point that you don't see a round sign with a bar in it. In fact, I've been a passenger in cars on three occasions where the car entered a pedestrian only zone because the signs weren't clear. Luckily, it wasn't at this place. On two of the occasions, we left the zone without getting caught, and the third we got a ticket.

My point is that the drivers were obviously confused. Nobody would ever intentionally do this to themselves.

You make some good points, but I do know drivers that would do this. My mother to name one, at least I think she would, there's always a chance she wouldn't.

Though I do know if she tried and failed one time, she wouldn't do it again. Even while intentionally knowing the possible consequences before trying. Yeah she is a bit of a bad driver I do believe.

I don't think it's pedestrianised. I agree that it's controlled, but it's not pedestrianised. Look at the first several frames of the movie, showing the street in question. There is a passenger car double parked next to three or four other passenger cars that are apparently legally parked in street spots in the "pedestrian zone." If it was a pedestrian zone, those cars wouldn't be there.

It could be unmarked police vehicles or some other type of official vehicle. That's just a guess though, but it could be true.

I think the first (?) car was consciously trying to beat the system. See how it swerves to the driver's right and the pole gets it in the middle of the car? It seems (s)he was trying to use the clearance in the middle of the car, hoping for enough time to clear it.

Maybe. But you have to admit it's a little confusing. I bet they get lots of tourists with those barricades. Maybe the local auto body shop lobby was able to get them installed to increase sales.

There are similar things in front of the Capitol.

(edited from White House - they may be there too, but it was the Capitol ones I was remembering.)

Haha, that would be something would it.

"Get caught by those pesky <insert general name of the car stopping tool>? Come to us and we'll fix your damages at a discounted rate!"

yah I was joking. I'm bad about that.

I'd actually like to see something involving C4 and knives.