Rich and Strange Aeons

On Strong Towns Facebook, there's discussion of breakaway light poles (so if a driver crashes into one, the pole breaks and car and pole keep moving on to any nearby pedestrians), vs. ones that would stand firm and act as protective bollards. I of course advocate for the latter. A driver objected "what about someone standing 3 feet further down? Should we just line the roads with impenetrable steel?" as if that was ridiculous and unthinkable.

Well, guess what. Lining fast roads with railings or bollards or hard planters is pretty common in Japan, e.g. 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8.

It's not perfect; there are often breaks for driveways, or just because, but far more often than not, there's both distance and barrier in between the cars and pedestrians.

Though, after a couple random drops into Nagoya and Sapporo, it may be that such barriers are more of a Tokyo and Osaka thing than a Japan thing; this place in Sapporo looks like any American stroad.