Prague red and white railings: 600 meters have already disappeared, about 10 kilometers to go

Work is currently underway to remove the railings from Vinohradská Street. Another street, Jan Želivský, no longer has barriers. “In the past, railings were put on the streets ‘just in case.’ It was not really known where they made sense and where they didn’t. Public space is supposed to be for people, not a place of obstacles that someone put in Prague without much thought,” introduced by Adam Scheinherr (Praha Sobě), deputy mayor for transport.

In the past, in 2015, the municipality had the Institute of Planning and Development of Prague (IPR) compile a Catalog of redundant railings, which reaches a length of eleven and a half kilometers and is located in fifty different places. “We now have 11.2km of redundant railings identified and the number is likely to increase further. Statistics for individual municipalities would therefore now have very little informative value,” Marek Vácha, press spokesman for IPR Prague, tells Bleska.

The removal of the first 600 meters was carried out by the Technical Administration of Communications. m of Prague, as (TSK). “On a regular basis, removal will be carried out in tens of thousands of crowns, including liquidation and landscaping, as part of routine maintenance on the basis of a decision or measure of a general nature,” informs Blesk TSK press spokesperson Barbora Lišková.

Security or redundancy?

A passionate debate broke out on social networks around the disposal of the railings. One camp is afraid of cars, the other likes that barriers disappear from the city without a hint of aesthetics. “So the safety barrier between pedestrians and cars is gone. And the option to park partially on the sidewalk has been added.” user Bohumil is angry. However, this opinion is countered by the deputy mayor of Praha 3 Ondřej Rut.

“Historically, guardrails are often placed in places where they impede natural pedestrian flow, sometimes separating the parking strip from the sidewalk, thereby forcing car passengers to use the road for walking when exiting and, on the contrary, reduces safety.” good Ondřej Rut. The currently modified Želivského Street practically serves as a second highway, where pedestrians do not feel safe and the railing provides psychological support. “On the other hand, it creates a separate corridor for vehicles, which motivates even faster carefree driving and thus strengthens the undesirable nature of transit traffic. Arguments for removal here also prevail for me personally,” says Ondřej Rut.

In the event of an impact, the railings will not help

Likewise, the IPR spokes have no anti-impact guardrails. Instead, the city uses barriers or city blocks. “Therefore, when a vehicle crashes, the guardrail is often broken through and its individual sharp parts fly onto the pavement towards pedestrians,” describes Marek Vácha.

Railings therefore do not provide real protection for pedestrians, only psychological protection. “From the driver’s point of view, the guardrail also creates the feeling that we have a clear safe passage, thus reducing our vigilance and increasing our speed,” adds the press spokesperson. The safest roads are located in residential areas, where drivers must drive slowly, walk in all directions and have no barriers separating them from vehicles. “Of course, everyone is cautious in such a space, which is the most important measure from the point of view of safety,” says Marek Vácha.