Deachman: Ottawa’s traffic flex posts drive us nuts. But they work

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When Canadian skier Laurence St-Germain competed in women’s slalom at last year’s world championships, her average speed as she fearlessly zig-zagged to gold was about 84 km/h.

When I last slalomed (a couple of days ago), I didn’t go half as fast, and was constantly bridled by fear.

Here’s the difference: St-Germain was on slippery skis on a snowy mountainside in France, and hit almost every one of those hinged poles, or gates, on her way down. By contrast, I was in my car on a residential Ottawa street, gauging at each flex post in the middle of the road whether I should jink left or weave right to avoid hitting it, while at the same time taking care to avoid cyclists or parked cars on one side and oncoming traffic on the other.

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Honestly, I sometimes think there should be medal for successfully navigating this city’s streets.

If you’ve been on an Ottawa roadway at all lately, you’ve surely encountered these flexible posts, also called bollards, boards or stakes: either the centreline ones that create the sense of a narrower street in order to force motorists to slow down, or the flex stakes on either side of the road that separate cyclists from motorists and presumably increase safety for all.

The three-season posts are temporary traffic calming measures — they are removed for the winter, lest the snowplows destroy them — and are sprinkled about the city at the discretion of ward councillors, with each having an annual budget of $62,500 for those and other temporary measures. In the last term of council (2019-22), more than 8,000 such stakes were installed at 370 locations, making them the city’s third-most prevalent temporary traffic-calming option, behind pavement markings (at 413 locations) and speed display boards (388). I’m not sure how many flex posts there are now — I’m hoping the city will provide an update — but it feels like there are 8,000 of them in my neighbourhood alone.

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Flex posts work differently than radar speed signs, which prompt motorists to make the decision to slow down. By contrast, flex posts urge drivers to slow down by psychologically making it difficult not to.

And while the posts are cost-effective compared to more permanent solutions and are easy to install and relocate, they’re not a perfect solution. You don’t want them interfering with the ability of emergency vehicles to get to residents’ homes quickly, or with OC Transpo buses and para-buses getting from A to B. And, unless the streets are wider than usual, the posts often come at the cost of parking spaces. Meanwhile, they leave holes in the pavement, which have to be filled when they’re removed, lest water get in and freeze and turn the street into a Mars hellscape (a.k.a. Bronson Avenue).

It’s for those reasons that Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney, who chairs the city’s transportation committee, consults both with city staff and community groups in his ward before having them installed. “They do work, but only in certain areas,” he said.

Motorists, at least a vocal subset, don’t like the flex posts because they’re a nuisance and, in many cases, confusing. Many cyclists are critical of them because they don’t provide anywhere near the safety that more permanent measures, such as concrete dividers, do. Flex posts, says Bike Ottawa’s Dave Robertson, are designed not to damage vehicles. “They’re designed to be driven over, so in that sense, they’re not going to protect anyone from being hit by a driver.

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Bike Ottawa, he says, would “like to see something that goes beyond paint and flex posts.”

Meanwhile, when the flex posts break, as they sometimes do, they’re often left in the cycling lane, a hazardous obstacle to navigate around.

I most often find myself in the camp of motorists who don’t like them, and not simply for the nuisance factor, but because they’re visual litter. Having said that, I’ll happily abide them if they do what they’re supposed to. We want safer streets, after all, and fewer vehicles speeding through our residential neighbourhoods. Speeding, said Tierney, is the No. 1 issue councillors hear about.

Studies indicate that the posts do make motorists slow down. In Sudbury, a two-year study that started in 2021 showed that the 85th percentile speed — the maximum speed at which 85 per cent of motorists are travelling — fell by between two and 10 km/h, or between 3.4 and 17.2 per cent when flex posts were present.

In Newmarket, the installation of a single set of flexible bollards in 2016 — one at the centre of the road and one each adjacent to the curbs — reduced vehicle speeds by two km/h. The following year, vehicle speeds were reduced by 2.4 km/h. The introduction of two sets of bollards, 80 metres apart, at a different location, saw a speed reduction of 5.8 km/h. Overall, the average speed reduction after the introduction of these flexible stakes was 5.2 km/h.

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But we don’t really need these studies, do we? Is there a driver among us who doesn’t find themselves force to slow when confronted with these flex posts, if only out of fear of scratching our fenders or side-view mirrors as we gnash our teeth?

And perhaps a reduction of only a few kilometres per hour doesn’t seem like much, but as Lewis Smith, manager of national projects with the Canada Safety Council reminded me, a reduction in speed not only lessens the likelihood of a collision between a motors and cyclist, it also helps reduce the severity of collisions if they happen.

“At lowers speeds, the odds of a fatality are much less,” he said. “Flex posts make the lanes more visible, and make the cyclists more visible to drivers.” He added, “They keep cyclists protected in that most drivers won’t go across a barrier for no good reason.”

And that really ought to be reason enough not to rail against them quite so much, maddening as they are.

After all, it’s rare to find a gold medal waiting for whoever is quickest to get home, to work or the grocery store. If flex boards slow us down and thus prevent deaths or serious injuries, surely they’re worth the annoyance?

bdeachman@postmedia.com

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