Last Friday, we shared photos and a story on the new plastic bollards (a.k.a. “wands”) installed by PBOT on the NW Lovejoy Ramp leading into the Pearl District from the Broadway Bridge. According to PBOT, the bollards were installed as an “experiment” in order to “discourage people who drive from entering the bike lane.”
Well, it looks like the experiment has failed on some respects. By Saturday, several of the wands had been hit by people driving cars and were strewn about the bike lane. Upon closer inspection, it appears the wands were attached to the street only by some sort of epoxy. Below are a few more photos of the scene…
As you can see, most of the bollards that were hit were at the start of the bike lane at the top of the ramp; but some were hit in the middle of the ramp as well.
Perhaps the next step for PBOT is to make the bollards bright orange and attach them more securely to the road so they bend down when hit but then pop back up.
Our readers had a lot of other recommendations (such as making them cement or steel poles) which you can read in the comments on our story last week.
PBOT told us last week that they’re aware that some of the “short wands” have been knocked down. I’m sure City traffic engineers will be analyzing the situation and make changes as necessary. We’ll keep you posted.