Expensive speed bump

And yet people don't seem to mind trying.

What would your "solution" be?

Not sure, to be honest. It blows my fucking mind that people keep running into a pole in the first place.

Somebody will still be on top of it in a few days. Can’t wait for the Facebook post.

Hold my Allen’s.

My guess, 1.5 hours

Two years from now there’s gonna be an entire gated community just to protect the pole.

And someone will still find a way to flip their car on it.

• Proximity activated trainhorn

• Make it look like a person holding a sign

• Replace it with an inflatable flailing arms tube man

• Armed security force that fires without warning

• Pile a bunch of empty shipping containers around it

• Straight up just remove the goddamn thing because what is it even there for, since you don't need a stop sign to understand that you're supposed to stop at the end of a row of parking spaces like literally this is driving 101 why is there a stop sign there

• Add a second stop sign a few feet from this one, so that people stop before plowing into them both

• >!The Second Stop Sign is actually a Decoy Snail!<

• Tire spikes

Is there something specific about that particular bollard ( If it is indeed the famous one) that makes it such a common target ?

My guess is that it's older people, already twitchy because its a busy parking lot, cutting the corner in such a way that the stop sign is directly in the little blind spot created by the uh... you know... the strips of metal that hold your windshield in place. I'm sure there's a name for those.

Lol is this the one in Auburn now?

It’s right in front of where customers come out so it’s easy to get distracted, the turn is also an acute angle and feels natural to cut the corner. The sign/bollard also often lines up with the windshield pillars.

Source: my wife hit the pole, and I came embarrassingly close once.

I suppose, but how is that different from every other Wally World parking lot ? That bollard is just out there in the wild...not really protecting a doorway or anything. I propose a ginormous traffic cone that they can bounce off !

"A pillar"

A-pillars.

They're called pillars. The one that holds the windshield is the A-pillar. The one between the doors in the B-pillar. The further back ones just keep going down the alphabet.

Force everyone who runs into it to retake the drivers license test.

If someone wants to go half on the repair cost I’ll gettah done by 3.

Maybe just change the angle of the corner

I've always wondered which was which, thank you!

They could build humanity's first space elevator right there and grandma Gladys would still find a way to dementia her way on top of it.

Excuse me... I think you meant WACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MAN!!!

Lol, I just drove up there from Portland a few weeks ago to see this infamous bollard in person.

On an slightly related side note from my one Sunday morning visit, the Auburn WalMart feels way busier than the Scarborough and Falmouth ones.

Okay, the barriers are fine. I can understand the barriers.

But what in the holy McFuck does the light-up stop sign add? People aren't usually ramming into it front-first, they knock it over because they're turning to the left. Slap those bad boys on the back and maybe you have something.

...

Your move, Biddeford. You may not have the money to renovate the Target, but you can at least do this. Play your damn cards.

>What would your "solution" be?

Well, this Walmart we're talking about, so: Make it known that anyone who hits the pole will henceforth no longer be allowed to wear pajama bottoms and Crocs into the store.

Problem solved.

theytried.jpg

They just need to take that cross hatched area and build up an island. People hit the pole because it ends up in their blind spot as they’re trying to make a left hand turn. If the entire area were an island, you’d have other visual cues that you can’t make the turn yet, when the sign is hidden.

When making a left hand turn down that row, the sign can get hidden in the blind spot made by the A-pillar on the driver’s side. People don’t see it, think they can cut the corner, and run right into it.

The actual solution would be to raise the entire area with the painted cross hatch lines, and people will always be able to see that there’s a curb there and not make the mistake of cutting the corner,

Look at it in google maps, the turn is sharper than a 90d angle which makes turning without cutting the corner harder.

How about continuing the parking stalls all the way to the end of the aisle?

Well they did 4 of em, so 4x fun now.......

Create a one way portal that encircles the sign that sends the car to the back of parking lot

Real answer: something moving. A little arm on a servo with a flag.

The motion will catch peoples eyes way better.

Yes

Biddeford? Is three an issue at the biddeford target?

One-way only, angled one-way parking. Lanes wide enough just to fit a normal car.

Large amount of pedestrian crossing speed bumps so pedestrians can be crossing at a higher height since humans are almost not visible anymore to pickup trucks.

Have inflow from the street to outflow, so it stops people from cruising around for the best spot.

I don’t get this. Usually people hit it coming from the opposite direction. Are both sides lit up or only this side?

The reality is it’s avoided a hell of a lot more than it’s hit so I don’t think it’s too hard to see.

Potentially, taking out the handicap spot right before this picture on the same side. I think people cut it tight to get to that pull in handicap spot and see blinders with the pole.

While I understand what you mean, if I owned a Jeep I'd probably park one wheel on one for the photo op and general cheekiness.

This pole is Maine’s biggest celebrity right now

Naw, if you look at a Google image’s search, almost all of the pictures are people who hit it while trying to make a left turn.

It's in front of a large zebra striped sidewalk where customers meander out of the store and split off in all directions. Motorists get impatient and try to cut the corner to get around those customers.

[deleted]

It'll make the photos and memes better.

It's stealing survival energy from the nearby, nearly dead, Auburn Mall.

Tonight, on the Dukes of Hazzard

Fatphobic much?

Bet

The saga continues

You need a pool for the pole.

I love every time the local Walmart shows up on Reddit. It's like a hometown celebrity.

Pass the nip

That's crazy ! Nobody saw a problem with that design ?

If i still had ah beetah id pahk it theyah an walk away

No. It's just that the Biddeford Target has been slacking on renovations for years unlike its SoPo cousin, which boasts a grocery section and new carts. (TBF though, it looks better on the outside than the outdated SoPo location. So there's that.)

I made the comparison because Target and Walmart are like siblings. The same issue with people running into this pole also happens at the Biddeford Walmart, though definitely not as frequent as what happens in Auburn.

As soon as the lights go out on that sign.

Ah yes, because what people should do in a parking lot is go full Sonic the Hedgehog and book it across the lot like there's a pile of free money and you have to get it first. Walking? You a pussy or something? Real men and real women run. This is track and field, bitch, not a springtime stroll!

Nice job showing your fatphobia, by the way. Gives me a good insight into one of the regulars of this subreddit.

> Sunday morning visit

> Sunday morning

> feels way busier

Well there's the issue.

I’m of the opinion the Auburn Planning Board should re-review their site plan and require changes, at least curbs around the striped area.

At this point it’s negligence on the part of Walmart. My conspiracy theory is that it’s an elaborate insurance fraud scheme.

What was the comment?

He said the one-way portal would be a good way to "avoid the lard-asses that push their carts at a half-mile-per-hour".

Should’ve painted the cement barriers yellow too imo, and put a camera on the sign so we can see the drivers reaction when they nail it!

It's already happened

This is exactly what I’m saying. Coming from the opposite direction than the picture above shows.

My guess is their cutting it short to take that horizontal handicap spot right after the sign and are having object fixation and not seeing the Ballard at all.

I understand hitting the pole- BONK- oh woops I hit a pole. I cannot comprehend how so many people just keep driving until their car is literally on top of it! How does THAT even happen and why so many times???

Slap it on YouTube , monetize, and fund repairs.

Blinded by the light they won't see the gray barriers. Need to light them puppies up too.

The tiny Jersey barriers LMAO 🤣👌🏻

> raise the entire area with the painted cross hatch lines

can't do that because of the corridor ADA requirements from the handicapped spaces. walmart has a team of civil engineers and lawyers dedicated to their parking lot layouts. every sign and line is specified down to the inch.

Probably, or a parking volume maximization issue. They could make it easier to navigate, but lose 25-30 prime spaces...it's in the math.

I'm surprised someone actually got a picture

Nice parking Janet. Thanks Rita.

>At this point it’s negligence on the part of Walmart the driver's hitting the pole.

FTFY

Needs two more concrete things.

Q? Why are they even there? I have not been to that Walmart.

This is the world famous Walmart bollard.

Here's a crazy idea - remove all of it.

Well... then the store would close lol

Nah give them some credit... at least half a day... maybe a full week.

I don’t buy it.

But the other solution is to just get rid of the sign.

I’ve never see another parking lot that has a stop sign at the end of the row on the building side like that.

I also don't get the urge when turning left, to leave the right lane, cross the entire left lane, cross the parking spot that's left of the left lane and hit the pole....drivers must be 40 feet off from the normal course of travel before the pole is lined up with their A-pillar blind spot. Anyone off course this far when traveling a regular street would find themselves in a field or woods beyond the left-side drainage ditch. Let's try to save 30 seconds of listening to a great song on the radio, waiting for people to cross so that we can stare at the 75% lean and 80% lean ground beef an extra 5 minutes, deciding whether to spend the extra 25¢ "for health".

[deleted]

It’s obviously bad design if this many people have hit it.

That doesn't change the fact that hitting a stationary object is always and solely the responsibility of the driver.

It legally does though. They would share responsibility because Walmart created the hazard.

If it’s in auburn I give it a week tops

Thelma and Louise at your service

What's the point spread on this? We all know it's going to happen. Just a matter of when

Careful what you ask for I already see a line forming.

Then the comments defending the driver like they weren't either incompetent or distracted

Just remove the damn bollard

Lewiston?

The “hazard” in this case is not the pole. It’s nothing more than good, old-fashioned human stupidity. The people who hit it were turning so early, that you can’t even say they were aiming for the wrong side of the road. They’re not even in the intersection yet, and they’re already turning.

If this were the corner of a residential block, they’d practically be steering toward someone’s porch. If they don’t know enough to pull toward the middle of an intersection before turning their wheels for a left turn, then they need to go back to driving school. It’s not Walmart’s fault people don’t know how to drive!

https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/lewiston-auburn/whats-up-with-the-auburn-walmart-pole-traffic/97-fec51927-bb20-4979-9e86-a2e7ad20faf3

There are definitely things Walmart can do to prevent more accidents from happening. The planning board has the right to require those. If Walmart didn’t comply they would be negligent. One of the biggest purposes of design standards is to prevent, protect, and mitigate human error.

The very reason for that pole’s existence is to protect the people who are not in their cars from human error.

If that pole weren’t there, these muppets would be mowing down pedestrians or crashing into parked cars.

It’s a stop sign at the end of a parking row, that’s the poles purpose. It does not protect pedestrians. Walmart could put a curb or raised median around the striped area, like many parking lots have, that people would feel before hitting the pole. I don’t dispute that human error is mostly to blame, but it’s hard to argue that it’s not hazard given so many people have hit it. A pole shouldn’t be this infamous.

Bullshit it doesn't protect pedestrians! That's a pedestrian only area that these dipsticks are trying to cut through, except they're being foiled by the pole. If they're not seeing that pole, then they're not seeing wheelchair users going from the handicapped spaces to the entrance either.

It's not Walmart's job to protect fools from the consequences of their own folly. It's a bright yellow pole that is easily visible to anyone who bothers to drive correctly and pay attention. They put those up in all kinds of places to stop vehicles from driving in areas where vehicles don't belong. Regular stop sign poles are not rugged enough to flip over an SUV.

Once again, the pole is not the hazard. The stupid muppets who keep running into it are the actual hazards.

[deleted]

It’s purpose is not to protect pedestrians, it’s purpose is a stop sign rugged enough to survive bumps. The striped area indicates no parking, it does not designate a pedestrian zone. It is not a bollard designed to protect pedestrians from vehicles, it would suck at that job because it keeps getting plowed over. If you cared to notice before talking out your ass, all the yellow poles at Walmart are for signs, they are not bollards.

Walmart does have a responsibility to design and maintain their parking lot in a way to prevent excessive accidents. People get sued for icy driveways for example.

How many commercial site plans have you reviewed or been involved with? You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about.

>The striped area indicates no parking, it does not designate a pedestrian zone

And why is it a no parking zone? Oh yeah, because people need access to get to the entrance. In particular, wheelchair users who are parking in the handicap spaces that are right nearby that pole.

That pole has prevented them from getting hit by people who are too damn lazy or incompetent to turn properly.

How many times have you actually been to this Walmart in question? I go there often. There is no excuse for being numb enough to hit that pole from the direction people keep hitting it. It's not a problem with the design of the parking lot. It's a state-wide (really, nation-wide) problem of giving driving licenses to people who are too incompetent to have them, because the required tests don't actually require any real demonstration of driving skill or to be able to pass.

>If you cared to notice before talking out your ass, all the yellow poles at Walmart are for signs, they are not bollards.

So they serve a dual purpose.

>It is not a bollard designed to protect pedestrians from vehicles, it would suck at that job because it keeps getting plowed over.

From the pictures I've seen, it does a wonderful job of stopping most of them dead in their tracks when they hit it. Takes their cars off the road for a bit, too, which at least temporarily increases the safety on public roads while they hitch rides with other people.

>How many commercial site plans have you reviewed or been involved with? You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about.

You know some things I do know? How not to smash my car into a bright, yellow, plainly-visible pole. I also know how to turn my car so that I end up on the correct side of the road. Auburn clearly has a problem with people who don't know these very basic driving skills, but were given licenses anyway. Their licenses should be revoked and the people involved sent back to driving school. Every single one of them turned well before there was actually any road for them to turn onto.

It's not just a minor mistake. This is an "I have never driven a car before and have no idea how steering works" level of incompetence. Engineering is not going to fix that. "Bravo!" to the pole for taking them off the roads, at least temporarily anyway.

It’s no parking because of the layout and angle of the parking spots, and handicap zone, it’s purpose is not a pedestrian safe zone. You’re pulling that claim out of your ass, you don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s only purpose is a stop sign. I go to that Walmart a few times a week, I live five minutes from there, I’m very familiar with it.

You obviously don’t know anything about site plans and what is required. It’s a very obvious design problem. People get in accidents, some responsibility definitely lies with property owners to design their spaces to prevent accidents, not cause them. You sound like a ranting middle schooler acting like they have the whole world figured out.

And you sound like a person who can’t accept responsibility for your own faults and has to pass the blame off onto others.

Pay attention when you’re driving. Drive on the correct side of the road. And turn properly into the correct lane, without cutting corners. Do those things, and that pole is a non-issue.

You obviously know nothing about the responsibility that comes with operating a motor vehicle, and ensuring that you don’t endanger others around you, if you think a highly visible, stationary object that is not in any lane of travel, nor in any sensible path for a left turn down that aisle, is the problem here.

All the engineering in the world can’t fix stupid, and that’s the only thing that’s causing these crashes.

I’ve said multiple times that human error is mostly to blame. You’re the one steadfastly denying that the poor design has anything to do with why so many people happen to crash into this one pole. No, it has to just be extremely coincidental that all these bad drivers happen to hit the same pole. The design is perfect.

Good luck on your crusade to make everyone a perfectly attentive driver. Meanwhile I’ll continue to operate in the real world.

Because in addition to everything else said, they are also exceeding the speed limit within a parking area by a fair margin.

You don't have to believe it for it to be the truth.

super festive! A month too late, but i like it!

>You’re the one steadfastly denying that the poor design has anything to do with why so many people happen to crash into this one pole.

It absolutely is perfect! That pole is a local folk hero at this point. It's taking dangerous drivers out, one by one, making the roads (at least temporarily) safer for the rest of us, and hopefully giving them a humbling lesson they won't soon forget about paying attention to what they're doing when driving.

>I’ve said multiple times that human error is mostly to blame.

This is well beyond the ordinary types of human error that lead to typical parking lot mishaps. These people are turning left so ridiculously early that, not only are they missing the correct lane, but they're also missing the oncoming lane.

The problem is less that they don't realize where that pole is, and more that they have lost track of where the actual road is that they're supposed to be driving on. They'd be on the sidewalk or in the ditch if this were a public road instead of a parking lot! That pole is not obscured by the A-pillar blind spot at any point where it makes sense to begin turning your steering wheel to the left to go around that corner. And they're not just scraping it because they get a little too close; they're mostly smashing into it head on! That one guy even managed to flip his vehicle over. How dangerously fast must he have been going in a congested parking lot to manage that‽

I've driven through that entrance and made that very left turn many times. It's blatantly obvious what path you need to take to make that left if you have the most basic understanding of how cars steer, and have even a small amount of spatial awareness.

>Good luck on your crusade to make everyone a perfectly attentive driver. Meanwhile I’ll continue to operate in the real world.

The crusade isn't to make everyone a good driver, but to get the bad ones on the bus, or some other form of public transit, instead. Our country made a grave mistake when it built all of its infrastructure around the assumption that everyone should drive their own private cars, and its going to take generations of work to undo that foolishness.

It happened:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Maine/comments/10vikia/yuhp/

5 days, apparently

I saw! I appreciate you coming back to drop an update!

You are a prophet

Came back to say this! Also happy cake day!

The story that keeps on giving.

Am I losing my mind? That one is a completely different parking lot...? There's a dark building with a bunch of windows in front of the pole - the one in this post doesn't have that.

Are there two of these?