New Standards For Pedestrian Friendly Bullbars.

[IRON-PAWW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close IRON-PAWW]

I don't believe in the do nothing approach, and just hope that it goes away.

Amen to that brother!

Evil flourishes only when good people do nothing!

The issue of safer bullbars is a good one. As long as they remain functional. Contrary to popular belief I do not want to kill pedestrians!

But you can see that once such hard hitting statements like "bullbars only hitting pedestrians" gains traction then we'll be in real trouble. Bullbars will be completely banned because the unknowing public were served up complete tripe as the truth. All bullbar designs are being stereotyped with such statements, new, old, hi tech, low tech. "Bullbar" will become a dirty word through misinformation and elections will be won by appeasing the ill informed masses.

[Strahan Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Strahan]

I can see the headline:
"Four-wheel Drive Owner Sues Pedestrian for damage to bullbar after idiot walks into middle of road."

There never seems to be anything said about why these people are being knocked down in the first place. I know I don't drive on the footpath so these people must be walking on the roads where they should not be??

I have a friend whose wife wont let him put a bullbar on their hilux because she thinks its dangerous to pedestrians. I told her if they walk out in front of their several tonne hilux its not going to make that much difference...

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

The Australian Automobile Association's technical services director David Lang said the first priority was to protect other road users, then the vehicle.

"When the majority of bullbars hit anything, it is a pedestrian," .

When the majority of bullbars hit anything, it is a pedestrian!!! What an ABSOLUTE load of rotting garbage!! Where is the evidence for this!! WHERE????

.

There would never be evidence of this.
When we are out on the road "we being all bull bar equiped cars" and something gets hit, be it wallaby, skippy, emu, cow, camel, donkey, goat we dont have an accident investigation. when a pedestrian gets hit there is an investigation. HELLO!!!

And just cause its ADR compliant is that going to be better.
There is 1000kg of metal hitting you, thats adr compliant so it must be safe.

Do-gooders are the skurge of the earth. They would want motorcycles off the road because we get hit by phone using, mp3 using, hair doing, breakfast eating, child smacking, road raging hyundai drivers who have never done an advanced driving course..

[lofty Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close lofty]

Bullbars can be dangerous....................if you are an idiot :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNJIDELqHxc

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

Bullbars can be dangerous....................if you are an idiot :lol:

Idiots can be dangerous! :lol: :lol:

[FlyNdrive Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyNdrive]

I wanted to post on this yesterday, but my better judgement got a hold of me and deleted it.

First of all is this a regular problem, or a knee jerk reaction to a recent incident? It's not much of a problem "up here". Is it dumb tourists who don't Look Left?

Darwinism states that the less bright (kindly said) individuals should not live to reproduce. We now have laws that protect these individuals and they are reproducing and dumbing down society. Logic also dictates that if a 200 lb man walks in a place where 2 ton vehicles drive at speeds faster than either can react you deserve to die. It's that simple. It's the responsibility of the driver to be cautious in pedestrian areas and for pedestrians to get out of the street. It's not the governments responsibility to redesign car hoods and Bull Bars.

-Ben

[IRON-PAWW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close IRON-PAWW]

It's really an ongoing problem Fly.

Every now and again something comes up that various groups, such as the Pedestrian Council, can get stuck into.

The absolute classic is how a small child outside a school would fare if hit by a 4WD with a Bullbar. Forget about the concrete mixer trucks that rocket past within meters of the same children during playlunch.

Such groups always seem to feel intimidated by 4WD's on the road also. Funny you know, but when I drive my girlfriend's little pulsar around I never seem to have a problem with people in their 4WD's. They're just as courteous as anyone else. God only knows how these people feel if a fully loaded Kenworth pulls up next to them. Incidentally, I've never had trouble with truckies. Often they go out of their way to make things easier for smaller faster traffic. Same with 4WD owners. You will always get idiots, no matter what vehicle you're talking about.

This recent announcement by the Australian National Transport Commission (NTC), concerning requirements for "pedestrian friendly bullbars" is the latest thing the anti-bullbar sect are getting their panties all in a bunch over.

The issue always seems to be boiling along under the surface here. A news article about an accident involving a car and a 4WD with a bullbar will usually set it off again. We had a bizarre case a little while back where a 4WD hit a kangaroo. The kangaroo bounced off the bullbar and straight through the window of an oncoming car, ending up in the backseat of the car. There was a picture of the kangaroo in the backseat on the front page of the newspaper here in WA, with the attached article raising concerns about bullbars again.

The fact is we are over regulated in Aus on our roads. Talk is even afoot to decrease the speed limit to 100km/h and reduce 50km/h zones to 40km/h. Obviously, none of the people arguing this has ever left the city.

[FlyNdrive Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyNdrive]

Thanks,

There is a different issue here in the states. ARB is the only Bull Bar that is really legal on the FJ Cruiser. Others like All-Pro, Fab Fours, Expedition One, Demello, and others are not crash tested like the ARB. They are legally labeled as "for off-road ONLY". You don't have to sign a waver, but if you wreck your FJ and the air bags do not deploy you can't come back later and sue.

Individual states are responsible for registering and inspecting vehicles. We have 50 of them, so we have 50 different opinions on Bull Bars. Technical mine is illegal in the east coast state of Maryland. The bumper is considered too high and therefore illegal. I doubt any cop would pull out a measuring tape and cite me, but if in an accident i can probably be cited.

IMO I think Bull Bars are an essential part of off roading. Not only for a safe attachment of a winch and recovery points, but for driver safety. Hitting a tree or deer (as opposed to your kangaroo) can result in the loss of control that would cause a secondary accident worse than the first.

Hitting pedestrians does not seem as much as a problem here. Every once in a while you hear about someone getting hit in the winter because they chose to walk in the street cleared of snow as opposed to the icy sidewalk, but I can only think of that happening once.

Good luck and watch out for bipeds.

-Ben

[Peterpilot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Peterpilot]

More nonsense from good old Harold Scruby, Chairman/CEO Pedestrian Council Of Australia and bloody OXYGEN THIEF!

He sprouts some anti-4WD crap every once in a while, like when he said drivers drove big 4WDs to compensate for having small genitals. The man is an idiot, pure and simple. :x

[IRON-PAWW Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close IRON-PAWW]

Fly would you say that Bullbars were common in the U.S. ? It's hard to really say, but a good swag of 4WD's around Perth are fitted with them. I'm not sure you could say 50/50 though. Certainly there are a lot of soft roaders without bar work, and a good swag of Prado's, Nissan's, Lancruisers etc, that don't have them fitted. It would be very interesting to see the percentage of the population that do actually have some type of bar work fitted. Of course.... all of us reading this forum probably do. It's interesting that the issue of pedestrian danger is an issue here and not so much in the U.S. Still, we Australians come up with the strangest stuff to worry about...

Peterpilot: It's mostly said that people who attack other people's genital size are hiding a rather "small" problem of their own. I wonder if Harold has ever driven in Kangaroo country as the sun is going down with a little dust in the air?

[FlyNdrive Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyNdrive]

Well, the US is definitely not WA. A lot of the communities up here build sidewalks and have designated bike lanes, so that may be the difference.

Another consideration is that Americans are lazy and the public transportation outside city centers are a joke, so most teenagers from age 16 and over have their own vehicles.

I have talked with several friends over the past 2 day's and none of them can even recall a pedestrian being hit by an automobile in our area outside of a neighbor kid hit on Halloween after running into the street on a sugar high.

-Ben

[stephenvsl Member Find all posts View Profile Close stephenvsl]

Re: Bullbars

So, our bullbars are legal, even under the proposed changes they want as long as nothing protrudes forward of the bar, no sharp edge items fitted etc. This means that if you have your fishing rod holders fitted all the time you are infact breaking the law now, they should be fitted when needed. :lol:

I'm heading up to Teewah Beach North of Noosa to do some fishing over the holidays - day trips from Coolum Caravan Pk. Is the best bet to fit the rod holders each time I get onto the beach and take them off again before getting back on the road - fairly easy to do - 5 mins? Any techniques for not damaging the Soveriegn Bar with the rod holder U-Bolts (I was going to wrap the area in thin rubber before bolting on the rod holders).

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Re: New Standards For Pedestrian Friendly Bullbars.

Hi stephenvsl,

I use a couple of pieces of rag to wrap around the bullbar, then put the U-bolts over that. It is simple and has worked very nicely. I install my rod holders before I leave home and remove them when I return.

Cheers,
LFaR.

[wengnuts Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close wengnuts]

Re: New Standards For Pedestrian Friendly Bullbars.

i think there are two main points worth noting.

1) publicity - to justify the pedestrian council existence and bleeding hearts mentality.
2) education - in my job i've seen lots of pedestrians walking into traffic causing injuries because they couldn't wait for the red "man" light to turn green or distracted by their newly acquired gizmo gadgets. increase the fines for jay walking and they will wake up and take notice.

To date, the p council is successful in point 1. Threads such as these only served to provide them with ammunition for their cause. The noise we create, the more publicity they get hence an increase in their government grant to follow through with their agendas. Do we really want them to succeed?

[stephenvsl Member Find all posts View Profile Close stephenvsl]

Re: New Standards For Pedestrian Friendly Bullbars.

Couldn't agree more Wengnuts. A lot of these groups try to get their agenda's through by thinking most people can't be bothered putting up a fight. As you know recent examples up here are: camping at Inskip Pt; limited/restricted access to Fraser Is; fees for Rainbow/Teewah beach, etc. Fortunately on every one of these issues 4x4 drivers in Qld have put up a fight and at least delayed some of these issues for a while.

Anyway, didn't want to start the debate again, just wanted some advice on rod holders without starting a new thread :wink: