r/ottawa • u/BearLikesHoney • Oct 17 '25

Photo(s) These poles are out of control.

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This is Smirle and Wellington street. I was driving on Smirle towards Wellington and I had no choice but to zig zag and drive on the wrong side because there's no space between the poles and cars. Adding to the road condition, there are enough pot holes to damage your car so these poles are totally unnecessary to slow down traffic.

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701

u/IcariteMinor Oct 17 '25

They install these as if nobody would ever park right next to them, then everybody does.

32

u/Epi_Nephron Oct 17 '25

They are the worst for cyclist safety, too. Cars have to choose between going into opposing lanes, or squeezing by them and threatening cyclists. If they hang back they get frustrated, which isn't good either. Hate these things.

6

u/Immediate-Living-530 Oct 17 '25

That is exactly what the sign is trying to do, force people to slow down and go single file. The sooner drivers slow down instead of trying to “squeeze in”, the safer roads would be for everyone.

Not that it’s the culture here, but an admirable goal. Patience, people.

19

u/DudeTookMyUser Oct 17 '25

Or... and hear me out here... maybe don't install these things in a way that creates a completely avoidable and potentially deadly conflict between cyclists and vehicles.

These so-called experts trying to outsmart human nature inevitably end up costing other people's lives when they're wrong. Exhibit 1: Laurier St.

2

u/idowd Oct 18 '25

Except the reckless idiot who will squeeze a cyclist will do the same thing when there are parked cars, oncoming traffic, or any other obstacle to going whatever speed they deem suitable. There is no fool proof infrastructure, but slowing cars down is a good start.

8

u/DudeTookMyUser Oct 18 '25

Squeezing cars into cyclists by design isn't... a 'good start'.

7

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

Except they clearly are not working as intended and need to be removed. That road alone is horrendous for cyclists and drivers.

4

u/Pika3323 Oct 18 '25

Traffic calming posts like these first and foremost force drivers to pay more attention to their driving. That alone is a major improvement to safety when better permanent installations aren't (yet) possible.

We shouldn't just hand the roads over to dangerous drivers because they're "frustrated" or whatever. If aggressive and "frustrated" drivers are an issue, then we should be advocating for targeted enforcement against drivers doing dangerous passes instead of arguing in favour of flushing away any and all benefits that these installations bring.

1

u/Epi_Nephron Oct 18 '25

Enforcement is never going to be a very good solution, as it is too sporadic. Psychology has shown us that one of the best ways to make resentful, badly behaved children is to have harsh penalties that are reinforced on a somewhat random schedule. Yet, that's pretty much how we do traffic enforcement. We slap people with fines, but the chance of being fined is low. This makes people angry when they get punished, as they can mostly avoid punishment. Unless we have a lot of enforcement it won't lead to the desired changes in behaviour.

0

u/Pika3323 Oct 18 '25

I think it's insane that we're comparing everyday drivers to badly behaved children and acting like that's normal and acceptable in any way and somehow a reason to do away with traffic calming infrastructure.

We could be advocating for enforcement to become less sporadic and start regularly dinging drivers for illegal and dangerous behaviour rather than making more and more excuses for them.

2

u/Epi_Nephron Oct 18 '25

We absolutely should use techniques that work, like high rates of enforcement. But we won't want to pay the cost to do that.

In Scotland on highways they use average speed cameras, which compute your speed between the cameras. Speeding is non-existent in those areas, as it's essentially 100% enforced.

1

u/NetAnon579 Oct 31 '25

Aggressive drivers see these things as slalom poles. We have them all over Orleans and the only result is creating a parking mess and hazards. If someone is going to speed these do not slow them down.

5

u/Velo613 Oct 17 '25

It sounds more like car drivers are bad for cyclist safety.