Percentage of Pedestrian Crossings with Bollards of Crash Test Standards

7 Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Minister for Transport (a) what percentage of pedestrian crossings have bollards of crash test standards, such as the International Workshop Agreement (IWA) 14-1 or American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F2656; (b) of these, what percentage withstands the equivalent of (i) ASTM F2656 K4 (6,800 kg at 48 km/h) (ii) K8 (6,800 kg at 64 km/h) and (iii) K12 (6,800 kg at 80 km/h) respectively; and (c) what other specific quantitative standards are applied.

The Senior Minister of State for Transport (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Transport): The bollards installed at pedestrian crossings by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) are not of the K4, K8 or K12 standards stated by the Member. Bollards of these standards are typically security bollards. They are installed to protect critical infrastructure or at high security areas, such as Changi Airport, to be unyielding.

The bollards that LTA has installed at around 100 signalised junctions are safety bollards that help protect pedestrians waiting to cross the road. They are designed to balance absorbing the impact from a vehicle and not causing serious injury to passengers in the vehicle.

In contrast, as security bollards are designed to withstand high impact collisions without yielding, when a vehicle hits a security bollard, the vehicle will likely suffer severe damage and the passengers in the vehicle risk serious or even fatal injury.

Mr Speaker: Mr Gerald Giam.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Sir, can I just clarify with the Senior Minister of State then whether she means that the bollards at pedestrian crossings are primarily meant as a visual guide to delineate traffic, or is it actually meant to stop, to protect the pedestrians? I understand she said that the bollards are meant to not cause serious injury to the drivers. But how about the pedestrians?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: First, let me say that the bollards, the ones that are at the bus stops as well as the signalised junctions at pedestrian crossings are designed to do both. Firstly, as I have said earlier, the bollards are designed to absorb the impact from the vehicle if the vehicle were to encroach into the pedestrian waiting area, for instance. That is to protect pedestrians waiting at the crossing.

But at the same time, the vehicles may have passengers. So, we also want to balance this to make sure that we will minimise the risk of the passengers in the vehicles being seriously injured, unlike the security bollards where, due to the high impact collision and because the bollards are designed to be unyielding, that means for security bollards, they are unyielding. It means they will not move or break off. Whereas for the safety bollards, because we are balancing both the impact, protecting the pedestrians as well as the passengers in the vehicles, they absorb the impact. At the same time, they could break or fall off whilst absorbing the impact.

At the same time, these bollards at the junction would also provide visibility. They will guide the motorist when they are turning. They will clearly delineate the passenger waiting area, the buffer area, as well as enhance visibility and, therefore, minimise or reduce the likelihood of these vehicles encroaching into the area.

Mr Speaker: Mr Giam. Last supplementary question.

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: Can the Senior Minister of State clarify then that will LTA educate the public to help them to understand that actually the bollards are not going to prevent a vehicle from colliding into them if the vehicle veers off the road? Because I think most members of the public or most pedestrians would reasonably expect that the bollards are actually going to protect them completely. But what the Minister is saying is that actually the bollards may fall over, and they might still be impacted by the vehicle.

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: They will provide a certain amount of protection to the pedestrians because, as I have said, the bollards will absorb the impact of the collision from the vehicles. So, there is a protection. But ultimately, of course, road safety really depends on a multitude of factors, including road user behaviour. So, we need to encourage all road users, whether it is drivers or pedestrians, to act cautiously and to take responsibility.

Let me also say that these bollards, although there are no specific international standards that such bollards have to comply with, for LTA, when we design the bollards, we take into account the design parameters, we do take reference from European standards like EN1317, regarding the road restraint systems on the containment level. Of course, these are also built with the steel and concrete structure in compliance with various standards that are an adaptation of the European standards.

Mr Speaker: I think we can squeeze in one last Parliamentary Question.