How Cities Defend Against Vehicular Attacks

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/how-cities-
defend-against-vehicular-attacks/558782/

Yonge Street is Toronto’s most well-known thoroughfare. With some of the
city’s busiest intersections, it serves hundreds of thousands of
pedestrians and vehicles each day. And like most major streets in big
cities, it lacks barriers to divide them from one another.

The vehicular attack Monday on a two-kilometer stretch of Yonge Street,
which killed 10 people and injured at least 15 others, exposed the
vulnerability of these crowded thoroughfares. When a van repeatedly
mounted the sidewalk, plowing through pedestrians as it did on Monday,
there was nothing standing in its way strong enough to impede it. Only
after approximately 25 minutes did the van come to a stop; its driver was
soon arrested. The suspect, 25-year-old Alek Minassian, was charged
Tuesday with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted
murder.

In recent years, this style of attack has become increasingly common
around the world. In 2014, Canada suffered one similar to Monday’s, when a
car struck two members of the Canadian armed forces in Quebec, killing one
of them. Vehicular attacks have also occurred in other cities, including
Barcelona, Berlin, London, New York, Nice, and Stockholm. And while the
motive of the attack in Toronto is still unclear, it prompted a familiar
question: Can these kinds of incidents be prevented at all?

Some cities have certainly tried. In the aftermath of the 2016 Bastille
Day attack in Nice, in which a lorry killed 86 people watching fireworks
on the city’s famed Promenade des Anglais, French authorities reinforced
the seafront with thick concrete posts and steel cables. In Germany,
authorities have installed concrete barriers around the perimeter of the
country’s Christmas markets and increased security staff to prevent an
attack like the one that killed 12 people in Berlin in 2016. And in the
aftermath of the vehicular attack on the London Bridge in 2017, in which
seven people were killed and 49 others injured, the U.K. installed
security barriers on eight of the city’s bridges.

These efforts may help, but fortifying cities in ways that prevent such
attacks from occurring altogether is considerably more difficult. This is
due in part to the terrifyingly simple, yet undeniably destructive, nature
of these kinds of attacks, which often involve nothing more than a vehicle
and a crowd of people. But it also has to do with the sheer proximity of
vehicles and pedestrians. “Cities are places where hundreds of thousands
and millions of people reside and where thousands and thousands of
vehicles operate, and often only inches apart,” Brian Michael Jenkins, a
terrorism expert and a senior adviser to the president of the RAND
Corporation, told me. “The idea of physical separation between pedestrians
and vehicles is extremely difficult.”

Some cities have tried creative approaches to security. In Italy,
authorities have disguised security barriers using strategically placed
oak trees and flower pots. In London, the Arsenal Football Club’s Emirates
Stadium is fortified with two giant cannons, which represent the club’s
insignia and act as a barrier to any vehicles trying to enter the stadium.
Colorfully decorated concrete blocks have sprung up in parts of Australian
cities like Melbourne and Sydney.

But fortifying a street like Yonge Street, which spans 35 miles, is a
considerably greater challenge—and, according to Jenkins, an infeasible
one: “Realistically, we can’t entirely separate pedestrians and vehicles
in busy cities—not without completely rebuilding cities.”
--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
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Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
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[benj]

Post by Leroy N. Soetoro
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/how-cities-
defend-against-vehicular-attacks/558782/
Yonge Street is Toronto’s most well-known thoroughfare. With some of the
city’s busiest intersections, it serves hundreds of thousands of
pedestrians and vehicles each day. And like most major streets in big
cities, it lacks barriers to divide them from one another.
The vehicular attack Monday on a two-kilometer stretch of Yonge Street,
which killed 10 people and injured at least 15 others, exposed the
vulnerability of these crowded thoroughfares. When a van repeatedly
mounted the sidewalk, plowing through pedestrians as it did on Monday,
there was nothing standing in its way strong enough to impede it. Only
after approximately 25 minutes did the van come to a stop; its driver was
soon arrested. The suspect, 25-year-old Alek Minassian, was charged
Tuesday with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted
murder.
In recent years, this style of attack has become increasingly common
around the world. In 2014, Canada suffered one similar to Monday’s, when a
car struck two members of the Canadian armed forces in Quebec, killing one
of them. Vehicular attacks have also occurred in other cities, including
Barcelona, Berlin, London, New York, Nice, and Stockholm. And while the
motive of the attack in Toronto is still unclear, it prompted a familiar
question: Can these kinds of incidents be prevented at all?
Some cities have certainly tried. In the aftermath of the 2016 Bastille
Day attack in Nice, in which a lorry killed 86 people watching fireworks
on the city’s famed Promenade des Anglais, French authorities reinforced
the seafront with thick concrete posts and steel cables. In Germany,
authorities have installed concrete barriers around the perimeter of the
country’s Christmas markets and increased security staff to prevent an
attack like the one that killed 12 people in Berlin in 2016. And in the
aftermath of the vehicular attack on the London Bridge in 2017, in which
seven people were killed and 49 others injured, the U.K. installed
security barriers on eight of the city’s bridges.
These efforts may help, but fortifying cities in ways that prevent such
attacks from occurring altogether is considerably more difficult. This is
due in part to the terrifyingly simple, yet undeniably destructive, nature
of these kinds of attacks, which often involve nothing more than a vehicle
and a crowd of people. But it also has to do with the sheer proximity of
vehicles and pedestrians. “Cities are places where hundreds of thousands
and millions of people reside and where thousands and thousands of
vehicles operate, and often only inches apart,” Brian Michael Jenkins, a
terrorism expert and a senior adviser to the president of the RAND
Corporation, told me. “The idea of physical separation between pedestrians
and vehicles is extremely difficult.”
Some cities have tried creative approaches to security. In Italy,
authorities have disguised security barriers using strategically placed
oak trees and flower pots. In London, the Arsenal Football Club’s Emirates
Stadium is fortified with two giant cannons, which represent the club’s
insignia and act as a barrier to any vehicles trying to enter the stadium.
Colorfully decorated concrete blocks have sprung up in parts of Australian
cities like Melbourne and Sydney.
But fortifying a street like Yonge Street, which spans 35 miles, is a
considerably greater challenge—and, according to Jenkins, an infeasible
one: “Realistically, we can’t entirely separate pedestrians and vehicles
in busy cities—not without completely rebuilding cities.”

Seems to me every other pedestrian carrying an AR15 would be a far
better deterrent and far cheaper than covering the city with concrete
and steel pillars.

By the way I was once in a situation like this when a car jumped the
curb and came plowing down the sidewalk (taking out all the parking
meters I might add). It is rather um simulating to see this vehicle
blasting right at you and you have only seconds to decide should you try
make it for the curb (which was farther) or just flatten against the
building and hope there is enough clearance as the car goes by to not
squish you there. I opted for building and there was the clearance. The
car continued down the sidewalk and came to rest against a dirt pile in
a flower bed at the end of the block. Of course in those days there were
no terrorist drive-overs it was some guy who had a seizure behind the
wheel. Luckily none of us were hurt. But it shows the problem of
vehicles and people in close proximity.

[Byker]

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/04/how-cities-defend-against-vehicular-attacks/558782/
Yonge Street is Toronto’s most well-known thoroughfare. With some of the
city’s busiest intersections, it serves hundreds of thousands of
pedestrians and vehicles each day. And like most major streets in big
cities, it lacks barriers to divide them from one another.

Yup, get rid of cars and install expensive public transport (buses, light
rail) that no one wants to ride...

[M.I.Wakefield]

Post by Byker
Yup, get rid of cars and install expensive public transport (buses, light
rail) that no one wants to ride...

I guess you missed that subway line that runs up and down Yonge Street.

[Byker]

Post by M.I.Wakefield
I guess you missed that subway line that runs up and down Yonge Street.

Why did people ride streetcars back in the "good old days"? Because they
didn't own automobiles...

[M.I.Wakefield]

Post by Byker

Post by M.I.Wakefield
I guess you missed that subway line that runs up and down Yonge Street.

Why did people ride streetcars back in the "good old days"? Because they
didn't own automobiles...

Lots of streetcar lines in Toronto. People with cars use them because they
can't afford parking.