Anti Rock Bridges

Sadly we need them to accommodate the stupid people with nothing better to do. But I think the Government has missed an opportunity to do some good public art (can’t believe I am saying that!) what they have put up looks horrible with these straight sharp verticle steel pieces and purely functional grill – I prefer the ones on the way to sydney with some pictures embedded in it for visual appeal as well.

Sadly this will also mean the end of birthday wishes and marriage proposals hanging off the bridges – sad!

Skidbladnir said :

This is making drivers feel safer without actually making the community or drivers safer. Hence “security theatre”.

A rock the size of mans fist (or a half-brick) is going to do significant damage to a windshield, no matter if it is dropped from a height of 5m, thrown 3m up first (which isn’t hard, try it in an open area) so then falls 8m, or is thrown at an angle towards the car while its moving.

Its less the fact a rock is falling and accelerating at 9.8m^2 and more that the fist-sized rock or half-brick is impacting with windshields (and then your face) which are already moving 60-80kph.

If someone is the ‘dropping a half-brick into traffic’ type, a higher fence or a expending slightly more energy to cause the desired chaos probably won’t stop all of them.
Some will just become ‘throwing a half-brick over a barrier’ people instead.
Its Finagle’s Law at work.

You don’t seem to get it ….. these structures have been erected in NSW particularly in Sydney, but also elsewhere and they HAVE worked. Are you a glass half empty person?

Without the screening, these “cretins” can actually aim with somewhat accuracy with these missiles. With the screening, they have to get in the right position, try and time the lob, throw object 3 meters or so up in the air and then hope 1. it gets over the barrier, 2. it hits what they are aiming at …… I think you will find it is too much effort with little outcome for them. They have worked elsewhere and there is no reason why not here.

And back to the bridge v roadside argument ….. it is far easier and destructive to drop a concrete block from an overpass, than it is to try and throw one from the roadside.

It is actually fairly common here. There have been numerous stories over the past few years of rocks being thrown from bridges, mostly at buses. It think the Carruthers St/ Adelaide Ave overpass has been used a couple of times. I’m also aware of objects thrown from the pedestrian bridges at Chisholm (Isabella Dr), O’Malley (Yamba Dr and Monash (Erindale Dr).. normally kids from the area – but generally not that widely reported in the media. I believe all of those locations are on the list to get safety screens.

While it would be nice not to spend the money on them, it’s probably necessary before they do seriously injure or kill someone. The people who you should be whinging at are the parents who don’t supervise their little darlings who run around doing such things.

I doubt they would be considered an eyesore either, the majority of the bridges aren’t exactly beautiful works of art..

This is making drivers feel safer without actually making the community or drivers safer. Hence “security theatre”.

A rock the size of mans fist (or a half-brick) is going to do significant damage to a windshield, no matter if it is dropped from a height of 5m, thrown 3m up first (which isn’t hard, try it in an open area) so then falls 8m, or is thrown at an angle towards the car while its moving.

Its less the fact a rock is falling and accelerating at 9.8m^2 and more that the fist-sized rock or half-brick is impacting with windshields (and then your face) which are already moving 60-80kph.

If someone is the ‘dropping a half-brick into traffic’ type, a higher fence or a expending slightly more energy to cause the desired chaos probably won’t stop all of them.
Some will just become ‘throwing a half-brick over a barrier’ people instead.
Its Finagle’s Law at work.

Holden Caulfield said :

Although, I can’t recall of any stories of rock throwing or other related incidents in recent times to support this.

anonymous gungahlian said :

Since when has it been a problem in Canberra? I can’t recall anything like this happening here.

I’ve had a rock thrown at my car (late night from side of the road). Fortunately they missed me but it scared the crap out of me having a large fist sized rock bounce across the road in front of my car. This stuff happens, it just doesn’t get publicised much here.

Anything that deters the little bastards that do this sort of stuff is a good thing.

Call me paranoid, but after the spate of rock-dropping in other cities, I must admit to feeling ever-so-slightly nervous driving under these foot-bridges when I could see groups of teenagers clustered above me … Of curse, nothing has ever happened to justify this concern and I know I am a victim to media-induced paranoia … , but I do think I’ll feel less anxious driving underneath bridges now. So, for this reason, and this reason only, I think the cages are a good thing. The one over Isabella Drive isn’t an eyesore at all.

Skidbladnir said :

This is a security thatre solution to give a perception of security, and appear to fix a specific problem, but not actually a solution to the general problem.
(IE: A solution which has little real influence on the problemwhilst being publicly visible and designed to demonstrate to the lesser-informed that a countermeasure has been considered.)

The specific problem has probably been phrased as “A potential exists for rocks to be thrown down into passing traffic from bridges and overpasses, putting property\human safety\lives at risk“.

Potential (but amazingly shortsighted) proposal:
Put higher fences along the bridges to prevent people from throwing rocks down at cars.

Problems with proposal
1) You can throw rocks up and over these things.
2) People can still throw rocks\ballbearings\anything from the side of the road at traffic.

So, to those daft people out there who think this is fixing a problems, how much are you willing to pay to have every road in you might drive on turned into a caged boulevarde, and would you then complain about the horrible views?

That is absolutely ridiculous ….. I have already seen first hand that this has solved “one part” of the problem in another town. It doesn’t fix all the problem, but it DOES fix a significant (possibly fatal) part of the problem.

Nobody is suggesting “caging” all roads, so it is a silly suggestion.

anonymous gungahlian said :

Since when has it been a problem in Canberra? I can’t recall anything like this happening here.

Put it this way …. government would not be spending a heap of money on this unless there was significant reporting (not necessarily media reporting) of this behaviour ….. if it’s not a huge vote winner, it would suggest a major problem exists, if they chose to fix it ??

anonymous gungahlian said :

Spideydog said :

People need to know that rock throwing particularly at buses was a major problem here too and not just in “western Sydney”

It amazes me that people are more concerned about “eye sores” than public safety ……..

Since when has it been a problem in Canberra? I can’t recall anything like this happening here.

There was a spate of them earlier this year and a couple recently.

Comments 19 and 20 are spot on.

I’ve got no problems with them, if they prevent one death they are worthwhile.

The sort of retarded cowardly fuckwit who would do such a thing needs the advantage of a bridge as it helps them get away once they’ve had their “fun”.

Correct me if I am wrong (and I know you all will) but I thought something was more dangerous when thrown from above due to gravity.

At least the ACT government is acting BEFORE something happens.

Yeah, but you can drop a much bigger rock from a bridge than you can hurl from the verge…

Spideydog said :

People need to know that rock throwing particularly at buses was a major problem here too and not just in “western Sydney”

It amazes me that people are more concerned about “eye sores” than public safety ……..

Since when has it been a problem in Canberra? I can’t recall anything like this happening here.

Also to the Editor:
Here is your original story: http://region.com.au/?p=11876

Spideydog said :

People need to know that rock throwing particularly at buses was a major problem here too and not just in “western Sydney”

It amazes me that people are more concerned about “eye sores” than public safety ……..

Indeed. IIRC there were a number of incidents not all that long ago, including a couple from the next bridge up from the one pictured in the article.

stonedwookie said :

yeh rock throwing happens.
but what stops people from throwing them from the side of the road?

Well, it’s a little bit more difficult to throw a heavy chunk of concrete from the side of the road than to drop it off a bridge, innit?

1. The bridge locations are far more dangerous and 2. far more attractive location to throw, for the cretins that do throw them.

When I used to live on the NSW northern beaches, they had a massive problem with bridge rock throwing. They installed these and the result …. no more bridge rock throwing which in my view, possibly ended up saving lives or at least countless serious injury.

People need to wake up, these sorts of problems are not isolated to “western Sydney” Canberra has a lot of the problems Sydney has, you just might not see it as much. People worried about aesthetics rather than safety (lives/injury) really need to re-evaluate their priorities. I am sure if one of their relatives were a victim of a bridge rock throw incident, the “prettiness” of safety grills would not be an issue.

Yep, rock throwing from the side of road will not be solved by these new measures, but at least it stops the bridge throwing. I would much rather have that than nothing !!

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t!!!!!

It has happened in Canberra and it will happen again.

stonedwookie, it’s a lot easier to drop a large rock, brick or piece of concrete off a bridge, down onto a travelling car then it is to do so from the side of the road. I don’t think they are looking at stone-throwing per say.

If it saves one life, it’s money well spent.

The fact that an aggrieved motorist can stop and give you a well-deserved hiding is probably a decent deterrent to doing it from the side of the road as opposed to an overpass.

Having to throw the rock as opposed to just drop it also severely limits the size of the missile and thus the potential damage.

It does make the place look like a prison camp, but it still seems like a good idea to me.

This is a security thatre solution to give a perception of security, and appear to fix a specific problem, but not actually a solution to the general problem.
(IE: A solution which has little real influence on the problemwhilst being publicly visible and designed to demonstrate to the lesser-informed that a countermeasure has been considered.)

The specific problem has probably been phrased as “A potential exists for rocks to be thrown down into passing traffic from bridges and overpasses, putting property\human safety\lives at risk“.

Potential (but amazingly shortsighted) proposal:
Put higher fences along the bridges to prevent people from throwing rocks down at cars.

Problems with proposal
1) You can throw rocks up and over these things.
2) People can still throw rocks\ballbearings\anything from the side of the road at traffic.

So, to those daft people out there who think this is fixing a problems, how much are you willing to pay to have every road in you might drive on turned into a caged boulevarde, and would you then complain about the horrible views?

How many teachers/nurses jobs were sacrificed to fit this into the budget?

I go over this overpass every day. Got chatting with the bus driver and he said that rock throwing was quite a problem for them. Pity.

yeh rock throwing happens.
but what stops people from throwing them from the side of the road?
its not like you can errect these around every road in canberra.
looks stupid and is a waste of money

People need to know that rock throwing particularly at buses was a major problem here too and not just in “western Sydney”

It amazes me that people are more concerned about “eye sores” than public safety ……..

Damn,
i remember spitting off that bridge as a kid. We were such badasses.

I can’t help but think that they will change the feel of our community and our city for ever.

My memory fails me……but how many people have been injured or killed in Canberra from stones thrown off an overpass/bridge?

We can attempt to protect ourselves from every possible thing that could happen to us in our life, short of the sky falling in on us, but what does it do to the whole quality of our life, the adventure that life is meant to be and the joy of living.

Those huge beams and the mesh that will go on them, have an iron curtain feel to them.

Yes we will always have some wayward people doing some terrible things (just look at Fort Hood in the US this week)but our reaction and the fear mentality that is encouraged by those in authority is often much worse for society as a whole than the impact of the original incident.

Just one way of looking at it…..I know there are lots of alternative views.

A bit of a shame really.

I guess it has been identified that there is a need for this. Although, I can’t recall of any stories of rock throwing or other related incidents in recent times to support this.

Carruthers St overpass over Adelaide Ave in Curtin.

I personally didn’t think that it was a major problem for us, but then again all it takes is one d**khead who thinks they can blame society for their brain deadness for a tragedy to happen.

There’s one completed outside the Chisholm shops – Isabella Avenue I think it is.