• Hildegard (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 day ago

    Those systems are designed to dissipate the forces by crumpling and creating debris that is thrown away from the middle of the road. The crash panels at the start of cable systems and guardrails are designed to launch debris in a colission. Incredibly dangerous for cyclists or pedestrians, which is why they are installed at road edges. They are completely unsuitable to be barriers between different types of traffic.

    Highway medians are almost always concrete walls. There is a reason those cable systems are not used between lanes of traffic.

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Highway medians are almost always concrete walls

      Funny you mention this, because most highway medians are a W profile ditch, or a cable catch system (which is similar to what I described).

      • Hildegard (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 day ago

        I’m referring to urban highways where opposing lanes are right next to each other, like the sort of spacing that you would need for a barrier next to a bicycle lane. Those cable systems are only installed in cases where there is generous clearance for debris, which is not applicable for the roadside bicycle lanes we are discussing.

        Admittedly it would be much safer for those in the bike lane if we dug a W profile ditch in pace of the car lanes. For some reason I don’t see that happening.