While they don’t traditionally gain a lot of attention as a road safety measure, understanding the role of a wheel stop can help people to realise their worth.
As a general rule, commercial car parks cover land and buildings used primarily for parking cars, taxis or wheeled vehicles. These may be open to the public or not, but a commercial car park doesn’t include any part of a public road used for parking, for a taxi rank or any land or buildings in which cars are displayed for sale or hire.
As such, those who manage or control a commercial car park have a duty to ensure that the car park, and the means of entering and exiting it, are safe and without risks to health. As these areas are often used not just by customers and members of the public, but by employees and contractors, employers can face serious consequences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act if they fail to provide a safe working environment for workers – and these obligations can extend to workplace car parks.
Although there are plenty of well known measures to enhance road safety in car parks, such as CCTV, safety barriers, clear signage, rumble bars and speed humps, one lesser known addition is the humble wheel stop.
Understanding The Role Of A Wheel Stop For Safety
To elaborate on the importance of wheel stops, perhaps it’s easier to first envision a world without them. If you’re navigating the third storey of a commercial car park, how comfortable would you feel driving that close to the edge of the floor? Even for those just taking a trip to the local supermarket, is your eyesight good enough to know how close you are towards the nose of another vehicle when parking?
As the name would suggest, wheel stops are a traffic management and car park safety device that works as a boundary when parking a vehicle. When correctly positioned, they alert drivers and stop them from running over the designated parking area and damaging buildings, property, and potentially even people.
In addition, the purpose of wheel stops in parking stalls is to prevent vehicles from parking on sidewalks, medians or other restricted areas. By physically obstructing a car’s wheels, they are often designed to keep drivers from pulling through a parking space or attempting other risky manoeuvres.
While they are ultimately designed to stop drivers parking in areas that they shouldn’t, wheel stops can also be supplied in designated colours to visually indicate loading zones, disabled parking or parks that are reserved. Like many other road safety measures, their design is flexible enough to ensure a reasonable level of customisation so that they can be deployed anywhere that requires parking guidance.
Ultimately, wheel stops are generally placed in any area that combines a reasonably high number of cars and people. On their own, they do have their limits and are generally restricted to parking but when used with other devices, such as speed humps and rumble bars, they can form an integral role in helping to improve commercial car park safety.
Despite their potential benefits, it’s important to note that there’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to selecting the right type of parking barrier. While rubber wheel stops are often one of the most popular choices, business owners need to do their research when it comes to selecting the right size and type of fixture that is going to best fit the needs of their parking site, particularly if the surface is uneven or gravel based. The solution? Talk to an expert.
Partnering With The Experts On Road Safety
At Speed Humps Australia, we’ve spent ten years focusing on one thing: to provide one style of product, and to do it exceptionally well. We have worked tirelessly to develop specifications that do not fade or deteriorate, are easy to install, and are made from high-quality, recycled rubber for minimal environmental impact.
With just a handful of our clients around the nation including KFC, Westfield, Shell and the Queensland Government, our rumble bars, speed humps and wheel stops have been purposefully designed to meet Australian Standards and to truly go the distance.
As our design and production is all handled in house and supplied Australia wide, get in touch with us today to request a quote or discuss how we can help with providing a tailored solution to your unique project requirements.
