Flex posts and fire trucks

[dbb]

So I suppose I am now officially confused. Arlington County cites the Virginia Fire Code as a reason to not use flex posts along some Arlington streets, apparently fearing the fire trucks Arlington owns would be incapable of crossing a row of flex posts.

I was (gasp!) driving out I-66 and noted that VDOT uses flex posts to isolate the toll lanes from the regular traffic lanes. That isolation was continuous from the Beltway to the US 50 exit (about 7 miles) with no gaps in the flex posts. It isn’t clear how a fire department vehicle would be able to get to a collision site if the traffic were corked. Did the toll lane developers hoodwink VDOT by creating this code violation? Maybe Fairfax County has fire trucks that are more hardy.

Just say’n

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[jrenaut]

Arlington County is lying to you because they don’t want to upset the drivers living on or commuting through those streets. That said, flex posts are dumb and unless you fill, say, a quarter with rebar and concrete so drivers never know if hitting one will damage their car, they’re just really bad street decorations.

[Author]

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