The mighty — and automatic — bollard is an important city-building tool that isn’t employed nearly enough in North America. It’s typically used to control car access to small pedestrian-only or pedestrian-first streets. But I guess if you don’t have any of these, then you may not feel the need to install such a device. The above photos are from Bordeaux. And if you want to gain access, you need to hit the intercom button and explain why you’re local traffic. Can you think of any streets in your city that could use a system like this? I can think of many in Toronto.

Rio de Janeiro has some pretty spectacular entranceways. Here is one that I found today on Rua Duvivier in Copacabana:

It is a magical front door located exactly one block from the beach.

The other gem I stumbled upon today was Rua Carvalho de Mendonça, pictured here:

Toward the left (above) is a narrow bollard-separated lane for cars. The rest of the right of way is dedicated to pedestrians and bicycles.

When I was there today the sun was shining and the retail was in full swing.

But perhaps my favorite thing about this street is the residential terraces sitting on top of the single storey “retail podiums.”

They add life (and eyes) to the street.

The mighty — and automatic — bollard is an important city-building tool that isn’t employed nearly enough in North America. It’s typically used to control car access to small pedestrian-only or pedestrian-first streets. But I guess if you don’t have any of these, then you may not feel the need to install such a device. The above photos are from Bordeaux. And if you want to gain access, you need to hit the intercom button and explain why you’re local traffic. Can you think of any streets in your city that could use a system like this? I can think of many in Toronto.

Rio de Janeiro has some pretty spectacular entranceways. Here is one that I found today on Rua Duvivier in Copacabana:

It is a magical front door located exactly one block from the beach.

The other gem I stumbled upon today was Rua Carvalho de Mendonça, pictured here:

Toward the left (above) is a narrow bollard-separated lane for cars. The rest of the right of way is dedicated to pedestrians and bicycles.

When I was there today the sun was shining and the retail was in full swing.

But perhaps my favorite thing about this street is the residential terraces sitting on top of the single storey “retail podiums.”

They add life (and eyes) to the street.