The Sadim Touch (https://wordpress.com/post/jesseyow.com/870) has been viewed more often than any other post on this blog, and by a large margin. That post mentioned, in passing, a person who shed dark on every question that came his way, and promised to save that story for later. Well, it is later, so let me share the story.

Many years ago I led a program at LLNL that reported to a DOE management team in Washington, D.C. The DOE management team and our LLNL technical team were both very capable, and we pretty much worked together as one. This was fortunate since we had many technical problems to solve, conflicting priorities to navigate, tight deadlines to meet, and limited resources. Many of us (including parents!) have worked through similar combinations of challenges, and success comes easier when we work together as one team.

The DOE team included a wonderful, down-to earth guy whom I will call Carl. (I can’t recall his name, so Carl is as good as any. If your name is Carl, rest assured that I do NOT have you in mind!) Carl was one of the most senior managers on the team. He probably owned at least a dozen “been there, done that” T-shirts; he was that experienced. And he was down-home kind of friendly, usually coming across like one of your favorite uncles. He really did bring a lot of years of perspective and useful history to the table. Unfortunately, he did not seem to be able to share it with us.

Someone with Carl’s experience should have been able to shed light on the questions we faced and the answers we considered. However, when we framed a question and turned to problem-solving, he would respond by reminiscing about some other question. More often than not, the question he recalled was only superficially related, if that. Or he would patiently tell us all the reasons why any proposed answer was a bad idea, or why it wouldn’t work. Even if he was speaking of something nobody brought up. Or he would change the subject while apparently thinking he was still on topic. Once in a while everything would align and his views actually helped. Most of the time, though, he shed dark on every question that came his way. A nice guy, but one that shed dark wherever he went. Sad.

They say we should learn from the examples life brings our way. Maybe the next time we offer someone help, we can try to be aware of whether we are shedding light or dark on the question. Would that our political elites were a little more self-aware when they try to “help.”

Our town, Livermore, recently started installing rows of white plastic bollards near intersections on one of our main streets. Why? The official explanation included words like bicycle safety, pedestrian safety, improved traffic flow (say what?), and volunteers needed. I think the general idea was to make crosswalks more visible to motorists and to provide a buffer zone for bicyclists near intersections. The photo below shows some of the installations. If you look closely, you might notice that they provided a white stripe of reflective paint along the edge of each bollard zone, and painted the inside of each zone with a tan-colored paint. Maybe that color was on sale at the local paint store.

But what is a bollard? You are not the only one to ask. Bollards are apparently not well understood or appreciated, so the city posted a sign at each intersection to show how to spell “bollard” and to explain what a bollard is. I did not get a photo of the sign, so, for purpose of illustration, here is a photo of my wife standing next to a permanent bollard near Kaiser Permanente’s medical offices. A row of these bollards prevents motorists from driving onto the sidewalk.Maybe you could knock the bollard over if you hit it hard enough with your car, but don’t do the experiment if you like your car!

So why did Livermore install plastic bollards instead of concrete? I think the city might have been fearful of a lawsuit if someone hit a bollard and damaged their car. Bollards make the lanes narrower at intersections, and make it more difficult to turn a corner tightly while staying in the correct lanes, so sideswiping a bollard is not out of the question. And they make it a bit of a challenge for large vehicles (think of buses and fire engines) to turn the corner at all. Therefore, the city opted for plastic bollards mounted on what looks like a piece of thin rebar anchored in the pavement.

Since these plastic bollards are not strong nor permanent, it is easy to run over them, knowingly or unknowingly, with a truck or a towed trailer. As you might expect, some bollards have been clobbered, and sometimes more than once. You can see a clobbered bollard below. A few days after I took the photo, someone clobbered the bollard next to it. As of earlier this week both crushed bollards had been replaced, but I predict they will be flat again within a week or two.

By the way, the city wanted citizen feedback about these installations, so they posted an item on Facebook to solicit input, and provided a link to a survey. Funny thing, though, is that the multiple-choice answers on the survey questions all involved admiration and kudos for the bollards and their design. No options for criticism or constructive suggestions. After all, if the local government doesn’t already know what is best for us, who are we to offer advice? 😉