In addition to Gord Price’s earlier post.
Let the howling commence about these new additions to the Burrard Bridge.
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I don’t recall anybody praising the old chain-link. It shouldn’t have been there either.
Spectacular views are a big part of what makes Vancouver Vancouver. If the new barrier was surrounding a medium security prison I’d say it was appropriate.
Here’s an image of the exterior fencing at the Matsqui medium security prison. Can you tell the difference?
http://www.rcinet.ca/english/illustration/htmleditor/bc%20prison.jpg
I think the chain link fencing was there so people don’t throw stuff onto the boats and Seawall below.
Welp, I guess if they have to be there, these are as nice looking as any. They remind me of a fence in front of a Victorian house.
The concrete column is a nice touch. It’s in the same style as the towers so that’s cool.
They are trying to reduce suicide by making the burrard bridge more ugly? Who thought of this? How will this stop a suicidal person from walking 2 minutes to granville bridge? What’s the ROI on the 6 million dollars spent for these fences?
It was significantly less than $6M. Each suicide has an impact of $1M on the economy. Suicide actions are extremely impulsive. The time to travel from one bridge to another is often enough time for the impulse to subside and for the individual to get help. This is a heavily researched finding.
If it’s so heavily researched somebody should be able to post some convincing research.
Still waiting…
It’s not $6m Kyle, it’s $3.5m. It was Vancouver Coastal Health who requested the City add a barrier during reconstruction of the bridge.
“We applaud the City of Vancouver for adding the barriers,” Vancouver Coastal Health Medical Health Officer Dr. Emily Newhouse said in a city release. “This new fencing will save lives. The research shows that suicide attempts from bridges are impulsive. Generally, if someone is prevented from jumping off a bridge, they don’t try other means of killing themselves.”
I’m curious about the impulsive thing. Very few people live an impulsive distance from a bridge. Almost all would have made quite some effort to get there. They could just as easily go to another bridge. Until they all have barriers we can’t know if they would then try other means. It may be a preferred method because it is easier. But it doesn’t address the root of the problem.
Aesthetics? What about the aesthetics of the infestation of Greedy Jim’s billboards?
Oh, come on! The billboards represent the landowners traditional ethic of “stewardship of the land” and communing with nature.
It looks like the vertical elements are sufficiently spaced so that a photograph with an SLR-type camera can be taken through the barrier. So that’s better than it might have been.
I find it hard to be too critical of the Burrard batrriers when I look at those godawful things nailed to the sides of the Ironworkers’ Bridge.
I lost 3 family members to suicide. My brother, cousin and step-sister. My brother jumped off the Port Mann bridge in 1975. My mother said to me hopefully by the time I get to her age, mental illness will be cured. Suicides are a societal problem. The metal bars may not prevent suicides but hopefully the stark coldness of the barriers will be reminders for us to be more caring humans.