I'm wondering how widespread this annoying stuff is around the country. If you've walked on it or pushed your shopping cart over it, you'll know what I'm talking about. It seems to be a rubberized surface, with the bumps spaced a few inches apart, used by larger retail stores here (N CA) to cover the slight downslope between the concrete entrance sidewalk in front of the store down to the parking lot surface. (It may also be used somewhere just on a flat surface.) I noticed it about two years ago in front of one store. Now it's used by many larger stores. I assume it's a non-slip liability thing that's supposed to be better than grooved concrete. It's so annoying pushing the shopping cart over it that I now avoid it by pushing the cart over an adjacent curb. Anyone love it as much as I do? Anyone live somewhere it hasn't yet been "discovered" and don't know what in hell I'm describing?
Sure, I'm familiar with the stuff you are talking about. And I see you are aware of why they are there. But when you actually calculate the 15 seconds per week or more that you would be avoiding it, it seems pretty trivial compared to other problems in the world ....you think? I wouldn't go so far to say I'd shoot someone over it. :blink:
They've been re-doing the city streets and sidewalks in downtown Columbia and have been using this stuff on the little ramps onto the sidewalk from the street. Ugly as all get out.
I've seen similar application within many Japanese streets on sidewalks and curbs, on train platforms and and routes to escalators etc. Then I've realized that it works like Braille system for the sightless in order to find their way around. Quite impressive system for blind and visually impaired. I'm not sure if the ones you describing have the same utilization.
Imagine, if you will, driving down the freeway in your Prius, when all of a sudden, the highway suddenly turns into the anti-skid stuff! Your MFD display then changes to the image of a mouth, and starts telling you to KILL, even though your Bluetooth cell phone has no battery!!!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dsunman @ Apr 21 2006, 10:20 AM) [snapback]243125[/snapback]</div> That's exactly what it is. That's why you see it on the edges of train platforms and before you go into busy streets. It lets blind people know that a change is about to happen.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mystery Squid @ Apr 21 2006, 08:21 AM) [snapback]243127[/snapback]</div> For some reason, the movie title "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" came to mind when reading that post. LOL!! They have that ugly anti-skid bumpy stuff outside the nearby Best Buy...can't think of any other places off the top of my head that have it too. It's just annoying pushing a cart over, that's all.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(San_Carlos_Jeff @ Apr 21 2006, 08:52 AM) [snapback]243146[/snapback]</div> I can see that it'd be an aid to the blind. Hadn't thought of it. BUT: 1) it's ugly yellow---why? so you'll know where there's a "ramp" from a distance? anyone see any other colors? 2) the bumps are too close together. running a fully-loaded shopping cart over it shouldn't be so excruciating---you should be able to avoid the bumps, or most of them 3) the bumps are too high; if someone fell and hit the back of his/her head directly on a bump, the injury (I'd think) could be far worse than if hitting on a flat surface Yeah, maybe this isn't such a big deal in the overall scheme of things. But the stuff is popping up quickly where I am, so I assume either it's had an extensive marketing campain among retailers, and/or the insurance industry loves it. In either case, I assume it was very carefully tested---for durability, spacing and height of bumps, in every respect. And I assume it's not that cheap for a retailer to buy and install. I've seen other faddish "technological marvels" that made the rounds of municipalities, the most notable recent one being mercury vapor lighting in cities' downtowns. After a few years of it, Long Beach had so many complaints they removed theirs and replaced all or most of it with whiter, brighter lights---probably a bit more expensive to burn, too. Anyone else have this happen where they live?
Just a guess... Back in the days when I was a security guard for a bank, one of the biggest problems I had was the kids skating on the sidewalk directly outside the bank. Of course, there were the large signs telling people about not skating/skateboarding/bike riding on the sidewalk by these businesses, which did no good. Several customers almost got hit. Perhaps some places are installing this to try to discourage skateboarders?
