SH2 median barriers

**Lou Girardin** · 22nd March 2005, 15:28

A Middlemore hospital trauma specialist has called for a median barrier to be installed on SH 2 at Maramarua after the lastest fatal, a bike v truck.
He's obviously not a biker because he missed the irony of wanting cheesecutters installed to save our lives.
Personally I think they should drop the speed limit 30 km/h and have lollypop men restricting traffic to one direction only for 15 minutes at a time.
After a year of that, there'll be a lot of cheap holiday homes for sale in the Coromandel, a win/win situation. Especially seeing that I use the Miranda road.

**Hitcher** · 22nd March 2005, 15:59

If a barrier goes up, it will be cheesecutter. This is now par for the course, given the installation of a plethora of cheesecutter barriers in these parts. So much for the Age of Reason...

**Mongoose** · 22nd March 2005, 16:13

Originally Posted by Hitcher

If a barrier goes up, it will be cheesecutter. This is now par for the course, given the installation of a plethora of cheesecutter barriers in these parts. So much for the Age of Reason...

Aint these cheese cutters just the incentive for M/cyclists to stay on the correct side of the road though?

**sAsLEX** · 22nd March 2005, 16:18

Originally Posted by Mongoose

Aint these cheese cutters just the incentive for M/cyclists to stay on the correct side of the road though?

or to hire a hilux and a gas axe and go along and chop them all down until someone relises its cheaper to install a proper barrier, than it is for intensive care of a motorcyclist???

Think about it, some plonk knocks you off your bike into the shit at the age of 20, you lose some arms and legs and whammo the state has to fund your life for how ever long you live, prob a million or two at least!!

**Wolf** · 22nd March 2005, 16:39

Originally Posted by Hitcher

If a barrier goes up, it will be cheesecutter. This is now par for the course, given the installation of a plethora of cheesecutter barriers in these parts. So much for the Age of Reason...

OK, what's a "cheese cutter barrier"? I've never heard the term before.

**vifferman** · 22nd March 2005, 16:43

Originally Posted by Wolf

OK, what's a "cheese cutter barrier"? I've never heard the term before.

Wire rope median barrier about a half-metre high, with steel poles and wire ropes connecting them.. They're cheaper to install than other median barriers, but obviously not friendly to bikers' bodies impacting with them, where they work like one of those cheesecutters that has a thin wire for a blade.

**Ixion** · 22nd March 2005, 16:45

Originally Posted by vifferman

Wire rope median barrier - works like one of those cheesecutters that has a thin wire for a blade.

Should really be called people cutters. Come off and hit one of those and it'll (literally) cut you in half clean as any knife.

Tried arguing with LTSA about them a while ago, basically message was "Don't care, get stuffed, motorcylists are scum and don't figure in our calculations anyway. And cheescutters are cheap."

**XP@** · 22nd March 2005, 16:46

Has anyone seen any stats (collected by a respected body of number crunchers) with motorcyclist survival rate against those things?

**vifferman** · 22nd March 2005, 16:48

Originally Posted by XP@

Has anyone seen any stats (collected by a respected body of number crunchers) with motorcyclist survival rate against those things?

I'm sure someone could make some up for you.

87.4% of all stats are made up.

**MSTRS:Me** · 22nd March 2005, 16:52

Originally Posted by vifferman

I'm sure someone could make some up for you.

87.4% of all stats are made up.

And the other 12.6% have only a passing relationship with reality??

**XP@** · 22nd March 2005, 17:03

http://www.techrescue.org/modules.ph...rticle&sid=149

This is the barrier fitted to the Frankston Freeway. I (Brad) attended a job a while ago on this corner where a motorcyclist had collided with the barrier at somewhere between 180 and 200km/h. His bike was stopped immediately he kept going and hit the front of a van travelling the other direction.

This may concern some motorcycle riders. I have researched these barriers and am unable to find scientific problems with motorbikes. The manufactures state that reasonable speed collisions on angles up to 45 50 degrees the rider should not cross over the barrier. There are other problems of legs and the like hitting the wire or the posts. This is said to be flexible and a preferred result to hitting the truck coming the other way. I think it is like every thing I ride a bike and I suggest the best way is not to ride stupid and don’t come off.

**Wolf** · 22nd March 2005, 17:03

Originally Posted by Ixion

Should really be called people cutters. Come off and hit one of those and it'll (literally) cut you in half clean as any knife.

Tried arguing with LTSA about them a while ago, basically message was "Don't care, get stuffed, motorcylists are scum and don't figure in our calculations anyway. And cheescutters are cheap."

And they don't open up cars like a can-opener? Sounds like what you describe - I don't consciously recall seeing any - would be devastating to anything that hits it at speed. And to think, here's us not allowed to string piano wire across the motorway while the LTSA can string it along the motorway. One law for us, another for them.