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A Look at Pop-Up Vehicle Blockers as a Potential Solution to Automotive Attacks

The Hudson River Greenway, a two-lane bicycle and jogging path along Manhattan’s West Side Highway, is one of the best places to cycle in the city, providing car-free cruising and a pleasant breeze off of the Hudson River. It’s also the site where terrorist Sayfullo Saipov killed eight people and injured 13 on Tuesday afternoon, by driving a pickup truck onto the bike lane at high speed.

Following Tuesday’s attack, community activists are calling for more bollards to be installed along the greenway, to make the bike lanes impenetrable to vehicles. While bollards and concrete K-rails block vehicular access to the bike lane at certain points, there are at least a dozen locations, at major intersections, that can be accessed by car. This is a boon to emergency services vehicles, who can go lights and sirens and clear the lane if needed. Permanent bollards would stop the bad guys, but they’d stop the good guys too.

One potential solution has been suggested by Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group for pedestrians and cyclists: Retractable bollards. British companies like Avon Barrier and Heald design a variety of these pop-up poles and other types of retractable vehicle barriers. Here’s how they work, and how effective they are at stopping trucks traveling at 80 kilometers per hour:

Although the cabs of the trucks still manage to clear the barriers as they disconnect, the barriers are certainly effective at stopping the rest of the vehicle from penetrating. And incredibly, they continue to function after impact.

Unlike permanent barriers, these could be lowered to allow emergency vehicles access when needed. Britain has a system in place in cities like Manchester where buses are equipped with onboard transmitters that automatically lower the bollards as they approach, in effect keeping certain streets dedicated to bus use only.

And perhaps they could be placed around more than just bike lanes; earlier this year a crazed man named Richard Rojas drove his Honda onto a sidewalk on Seventh Avenue, killing a woman and mowing down 20 other people.

Of course, it can’t only be New York that is looking at how to protect against vehicular mass assaults; in just the past year there have been attacks in Nice, Berlin, Stockholm, Barcelona, Edmonton, and multiple attacks in London. Like reinforced cockpit doors and surveillance cameras, retractable bollards are sure to become a common sight.