Sydney Street Furniture I

This is the first in a series of postings I will be making whilst on holiday in Sydney and Melbourne, mainly about architectural details which may be of interest to Buildub readers.

My favourite way to meet a new city is to do what I call a random walk, followed by a random journey back to my starting point on public transport.

I will be posting photos and descriptions of anything I find of interest, whether internal or external.

Cycle Locking Point

This first is ... If I am right ... a place to lock your bicycle.

Zebra Crossings are as clear as in the UK. Cars stop, pedestrians keep going. But the Sydney version of a Belisha Beacon is joyous in its bluntness.

You can also see that the Fun Police have reached Australia. I will have a bit more to say about the Sydney police force, and priorities of pedestrians and motor vehicles later.

Textured Paving.

In the UK we have moulded concrete pavers with grids of bumps to place next to, for example, pedestrian crossings, such that visually impaired people can tell by touch where to cross the road with the help of signals, or where they are approaching the edge of a kerb.

This is the strangest item of street furniture I have met here. The Sydney version is grids of metal studs, which could almost have been designed as a slip risk in humidity or rain, especially for visually impaired or blind people 

in places there are even signs warning that the studs are a slip hazard. Quite how these are supposed to keep blind people safe is an explanation I would love to hear. Or perhaps I have misunderstood?

Comments are, as ever, welcome below.