Summary

New Orleans is installing new 10-mph-rated bollards on Bourbon Street to replace failing barriers ahead of the Feb. 9 Super Bowl, despite knowing they can’t stop moderate-to-high-speed vehicle attacks like the deadly New Year’s Day incident that killed 14.

The city prioritized ease of use over crash safety due to maintenance issues with older barriers.

Critics argue the new system leaves vulnerabilities, as the engineering report showed vehicles could still exceed the bollards’ speed rating.

Officials face scrutiny over balancing security and daily operations in the crowded tourist zone.

  • @Donkter
    -14•3 days ago

    Is this really seen as a bad thing? Is bourbon street really supposed to capitulate to terror and install ultra-securtity defenses like they expect a high-speed attack every year? How many years has it been since the last similar attack? Is the secret that it never happened before and probably won’t again?

    • HubertManne
      10•3 days ago

      Basically mardi gras will tell them. if they have a normal amount of tourists then no its acceptable. If not then maybe they have to show a bit more concern around the possibility.

    • Flying Squid
      2•2 days ago

      It’s an area with extremely high pedestrian traffic and cars. Regardless of what just happened, traffic barriers are a really good idea. Accidents happen.

      They put bollards in front of shopping malls and I doubt it’s because they are trying to stop Blues Brothers re-enactors.

    • @[email protected]
      2•3 days ago

      Even if people stop doing vehicular attacks (which they won’t, see the Christmas market one in Germany and countless other ones globally), it’s a good investment in safety to have a hard barrier between people and cars for normal ‘accidents’ as well.

    • @[email protected]
      0•3 days ago

      You’re intentionally misunderstanding the situation. Heavy duty bollards are expensive. They don’t want to pay, because they don’t give a fuck. And your observation on rarity is backwards. Copycat killers exist. It worked once, why not do it again, they will accurately think.

      • JWBananasEnglish
        3•3 days ago

        You’re intentionally misunderstanding the situation. Heavy duty bollards are expensive.

        Are we reading the same article?

        The report outlined three different crash-rating standards for bollard systems. It concluded that the highest crash rating, which could withstand impacts from 15,000-pound vehicles traveling between 30 to 50 mph, was “not compatible” with the city’s needs to move the bollards every day.

        “Specialized lifting equipment like a truck-mounted crane or heavy machinery would be necessary” to move such bollards daily, the report said.

        They don’t want to pay, because they don’t give a fuck.

        The funding comes from the state. The administration comes from the state. The last set the state funded in 2017 started failing within 6 months. That is why the replacement project was even happening.

        It also took years for the state to fund the replacement.

        There has historically been a lot of this type of tension between the state and the city. Despite the [mostly Democrat] city’s tax dollars largely funding the rest of the [mostly Republican/other] state, the state loves to cause all sorts of problems for the city.

        The bollards, for instance. The state administers the FQMD. The FQMD commissioned them in the first place.

        But will the FQMD operate them?

        https://www.investigatetv.com/2025/01/04/sidewalk-barriers-set-up-after-new-orleans-terror-attack-were-already-city-not-used-new-years/

        “We do not employ personnel that actually do work on a functional basis. We need to partner with the city, and we need a partner with other organizations like NOPD, like the sheriff’s department, like Troop Nola, to accomplish our objectives,” she said. “And so we’ve had discussions about all of these things over the years as it relates to public safety.”

        Will the FQMD ensure that happens?

        According to board meeting minutes reviewed by InvestigateTV, there were concerns about the bollard system itself — but also an ongoing staffing struggle over who was locking them into place each night.

        In a Jan. 2019 report from the then-chair, state police and homeland security were not positioning and locking Quarter bollards despite requests to, and the city asked if the FQMD would consider taking on that responsibility.

        This was met with concerns about liability, with one commissioner saying the bollards were “not a good system.”

        Copycat killers exist. It worked once, why not do it again, they will accurately think.

        Again, are we reading the same article?

        The city currently has no bollards at Canal and Bourbon streets, where the attacker entered, but the roadway was blocked by an SUV police cruiser parked sideways on New Year’s.

        Attack suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. combat veteran from Texas, exploited another vulnerability in the city’s security planning: He squeezed his seven-foot-wide pickup onto an eight-foot-wide sidewalk between a drugstore wall and the police vehicle, stomping the accelerator and plowing through the crowd at about 3:15 a.m.

        The police SUV blocking the street was more than sufficient as a replacement for the bollards. But the bollards (and the SUV) only block the street, not the sidewalk. Block the sidewalk too, and you run into ADA issues.

        • @WoodScientist
          1•2 days ago

          I don’t understand why they don’t just make the whole street permanently pedestrian-only. This isn’t that hard. You move things by cart along the street itself. Need to make a delivery? You drive it to within a couple blocks, then use a cart. Same for taking trash out.

          This isn’t some radical new kind of logistics. Every shopping mall in America works like this. Shop owners don’t complain that they can’t drive a delivery truck right up to their store front in the mall. Customers manage to park and walk around just fine. Trash gets cleaned up.

          This is the solution to this problem. But the people of the city or state are just too motoronormative to comprehend it.

      • @[email protected]English
        -1•3 days ago

        No city has infinite resources. They need to balance cost against probability.

        Do you have a steel front door with 90 locks on it? Unlikely because you’re “prioritizing cost over your families safety” right?

        The calculus may change now if this is seen as more likely to happen again.