Top Four Uses for Bollards:
With every passing second, the world becomes more populated. The South African streets bustle with zooming vehicles, unpredictable pedestrians, storefronts, and street vendors. To keep these public spaces safe and demarcated correctly, bollards have become an important landscape element. StreetScape is your go-to for a sturdy, durable, and stylish bollard. Find out the top four uses for bollards and why you will find them on every street corner.
What is a Bollard?
A bollard was previously only found alongside piers where it was used to assist the docking of boats. Now everywhere you look in public spaces you can spot bollards. From alongside roads to outside businesses, they have become an embedded feature in South African public spaces.
A bollard is a post that is designed to be sturdy, durable, and visible to vehicles. These permanent structures are selectively placed in locations that allow them to fulfil a purpose. The location will designate the purpose of the bollard.
Bollards are important for any public space. If you are a business owner, homeowner, or involved in your area, then you need to ensure that all public spaces incorporate bollards. If you are looking to install bollards in your area, then StreetScape is your go-to for practical and stylishly designed bollards.
StreetScape:
StreetScape is a Cape Town-based company that manufactures landscaping elements. StreetScape is passionate about creating stunning landscaping elements which also have a practical function. This makes it easy for you to find landscaping elements that are both beautiful and useful.
Among the many landscaping items available at StreetScape, the bollard is one of the best landscaping items. StreetScape is highly experienced and encourages you to get in touch to discuss the best bollard to suit your needs and aesthetic requirements.
Bollard Styles at StreetScape:
StreetScape is your one-stop shop for all your bollard desires. StreetScape creates bollards in either steel or concrete. This offers you the opportunity to choose a bollard material that will be ideally suited to your needs. Both materials are durable and will provide an adequate barrier between your business or home and any bustling street.
All StreetScape bollards come in different shapes and sizes. For your convenience, the dimension of each bollard is listed. This ensures that you can plan correctly when you are installing bollards in your area. The spacing between each bollard is dependent on the space of the area you are installing them in and your functional requirements for the bollard.
StreetScape offers an extensive range of bollard styles and designs. These styles range from the easily noticed, such as the Round 150 Flat Top bollard in bright yellow, to the decorative design, such as the Newton bollard. Just because bollards are practical does not mean that can not be aesthetically pleasing too!
Concrete Bollard Styles:
Concrete is a great material to create a variety of bollard styles that are durable and practical. StreetScape concrete bollards have a range of finishes which makes it easy to find a concrete bollard that will suit your space.
The texture of the concrete bollard ranges from course with stone specks to smooth raw concrete. The concrete bollards are available in a variety of colours which range from mixed browns to raw concrete grey, to easily painted a colour of your choice. StreetScape offers concrete bollards which can perform their function whilst not skimping on style.
If you are looking for a concrete bollard, StreetScape has these various designs.
1. Bloc 220
2. Taper
3. Barrier
4. 400mm Ball
5. 500mm Ball
6. Quartet
7. Rectangular 900
8. Bloc 560A
9. Fence Rail
10. Cape
11. Dome
12. Dome Bloc
13. Bastian
14. 450 Round
15. 600 Round
16. Oval
17. Bollard with Chain
Steel Bollard Styles:
StreetScape provides you with a range of choices in the design and aesthetic of the steel bollards. All steel bollards available at StreetScape are made from galvanised steel. This will prevent the bollards from becoming corroded or rusted. Once you install a StreetScape steel bollard, it will perform its function without becoming easily damaged or ruining the aesthetic of the space.
StreetScape steel bollards are also able to be finished with your desired paint colour or left in the natural steel finish. The colour of your steel bollards from StreetScape is dependent on your needs for the bollards. Bright colours are useful for grabbing attention and signalling dangerous areas, whilst muted colours perform a function without taking attention away from the surrounding area.
StreetScape offers these steel bollard designs.
1. Round 150 Flat Top
2. Newton
3. Regal
4. Square 150 Single Band
5. Round 150 Tri Band
6. Round 150 Convex Top
7. Canon
8. Ball Head 50
9. Quay
Top Four Uses for Bollards:
StreetScape bollards are beautiful in design but are also exceptionally useful landscape elements. These are the top four uses for bollards in public spaces.
1) Safety:
Bollards are landscape elements that are commonly used for safety. These are a few of the areas in which you can commonly find bollards being used for safety purposes.
1. Playgrounds.
2. Schools.
3. Parks.
4. Restaurants.
5. Businesses.
6. Shopping Centres.
These public spaces have one common feature; they are highly populated with people and are often situated alongside a road. No matter whether the road is a quiet side-street or a bustling main road, accidents can occur anywhere. These sturdy structures offer a great barrier between any public space and vehicles which have lost control.
Bollards also protect buildings from being damaged in a car accident. The damages caused to any building which has been impacted by a vehicle can have devastating effects on the building, the surrounding area to the building, and the building owner. The cost of fixing a building greatly outweighs the cost of installing protective bollards outside your building.
Ramraids or “crash and grabs” are situations where a vehicle will be purposely driven into a business or store to quickly be able to cause chaos and steal items from the damaged building. These situations leave you with both a massive loss to your business, damages to your business to repair, and possible injuries to yourself or your employees. Bollards help deter any premeditated ramraids and keep your business safe from this type of threat.
Bollards also offer an element of safety to the people in vehicles that have swerved off the road. The impact of a vehicle colliding into a bollard is lesser than that of a vehicle crashing into a building. This helps keep the driver and passengers at less risk of being severely injured and can also reduce damage to the vehicle.
Bollards are also often found around most major water sources. Roads that are situated along rivers or lakes are important spaces for bollards. A bollard can be the only thing that keeps a vehicle from becoming submerged underwater if there is an accident that causes the vehicle to swerve off the road.
2) Traffic:
Bollards are often found alongside roads due to their many beneficial uses for aiding vehicle movement. The selective placing of a bollard can aid how many cars can enter an area at a time. This allows you to have greater control over how vehicles access an area.
Bollards help create safer roads for motorists to travel on. Selectively placed bollards can be used to create narrow roads. This causes motorists to slow down and enter the road with caution. Vehicles travelling at slower speeds can greatly reduce the number of accidents that occur in an area.
Certain areas are often prone to traffic jams at peak hours during the day. This can often lead to certain drivers driving on dangerous areas of the road to try to get ahead of the queue. Bollards keep vehicles in the correct space of the road and can prevent unnecessary accidents.
Bollards can also be used to block traffic temporarily. If there is major construction occurring in an area for an extended period, then bollards are a useful way to prevent traffic from entering the area and directing vehicles to an alternative route.
3) Demarcation of Space:
Bollards help create designated spaces that can then be used for a multitude of activities or needs. Bollards are often placed alongside roads to create a designated space for pedestrians to walk. This provides people with an area to walk, run, walk their dog, cycle, or roller-blade out of harm’s way of the passing cars. Demarcated pedestrian spaces are critical in busy city centres due to the high volume of people on the side of the roads.
Creating a demarcated space with a bollard can also be beneficial for your business. Curb appeal is important for the overall effect of your business. Create a space outside your business that is beautiful, enviable, and inviting to potential customers.
Parking lots are often demarcated with bollards. In areas like Cape Town, finding parking for your car requires skill, patience, and arriving to work earlier than necessary. If your business does not have a designated space for parking your car, this can cause your employees to incur unnecessary costs by paying for public transport each day. Having an area for parking cars demarcated by bollards provides your employees with the option to use their transport to get to work on time.
Bollards used to create demarcated spaces specifically for parking cars also help prevent cars from parking on your business’s verge or pavement. This can cause damages to your business’s curb, affect the overall curb appeal of your business, or deter potential customers as they may not notice your business hidden behind a car or truck. Bollards keep your business safe and your curb free for people to easily walk through your door.
4) Preservation of Historical Areas:
South Africa is home to numerous historical buildings and areas which form part of the history, culture, and landscape of this beautiful country. Bollards are useful to use as ways to protect and preserve these historical areas.
Cape Town alone is home to a range of monuments, historic buildings, museums, and art galleries which all hold items of significant cultural and historical value. Many of these historical areas are also found alongside busy roads. The Iziko South African Museum and the Prestwich Memorial Garden are such historical areas that would be devastated by any damage by a car accident.
Alongside the beautiful man-made historical areas of Cape Town are landmark trees found alongside many roads. Many of these trees have been a part of the Cape Town landscape for many years and are an important part of the history of Cape Town. These trees can be preserved with the use of a selectively placed bollard.
Using bollards not only keeps these historical landmarks safe but also enables the preservation of these historical areas. The damage to any of these areas would be impossible to repair and a devastation to South African history.
StreetScape bollards are both beautiful in design and practical for all your bollard needs.