page_title: Bollard
section_title: Traffic-island bollards
hierarchical_section_title: Bollard / Types / Road traffic / Traffic-island bollards
caption_attribution_description: English: Internally illuminated bollards, Orpington High Street. Picture taken by James Gray 14th Jan 2006
context_page_description: A bollard is a sturdy, short, vertical post. The term originally referred to a post on a ship or quay used principally for mooring boats, but is now also used to refer to posts installed to control road traffic and posts designed to prevent ram-raiding and vehicle-ramming attacks.
context_section_description: Traffic bollards are used to highlight traffic islands. They are primarily used at intersections within the splitter islands (a raised or painted area on the approach of a roundabout used to separate entering from exiting traffic, deflect and slow entering traffic, and provide a stopping place for pedestrians crossing the road in two stages) and at the ends of pedestrian refuge islands, typically located at mid-block pedestrian crosswalks.
  Illuminated bollards are also used to supplement street signs and street lighting to provide a visual cue to approaching drivers that an obstacle exists ahead during hours of darkness and during periods of low visibility: (fog, rain, snow, haze, etc.) and to indicate that braking may be required. Illuminated bollards are also used in Hong Kong, a former British colony.
  Internally illuminated traffic bollards have been in existence throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland since the 1930s, although the term "bollard" only seems to have been in common use since the late 1940s. An illuminated bollard has a recessed base light unit in the foundation which illuminates the traffic bollard from all angles. The main components are housed below the road or pedestrian surface (typically a concrete surface). Therefore, if a vehicle strikes the traffic bollard, the units below the surface are not damaged.
  Reflective bollards may also be used; they need no power or maintenance, and can be built to recover to their normal position after being struck.
caption: Internally illuminated traffic bollards direct vehicles to the appropriate side of an island in the United Kingdom.
exif: {}