Page 32 - Campus Security & Life Safety, January/February 2022

Use Vehicle Access
Control Tools for
By Greg Hamm
Crowd Surges
The invention of the automo- bile made land travel faster and easier. The next step was to make it more organized and efficient, a task that is never completed. Traffic management is the arrangement, control, guidance and organi- zation of motorized and non-motorized vehicles on the road—those that are station- ary and those that are moving, as well as pedestrians. Traffic laws and signals bring order to the roads and, thus, can be seen as the primary rudiments of traffic manage- ment. However, traffic management is gener- ally understood as handling traffic flow and volume throughout the day.
What are the Goals of Traffic Management?
The primary goal of campus traffic manage- ment is to make the movement of goods and persons as efficient, orderly and safe as pos- sible. This applies to everyone who uses the roads, not only operators of motor vehicles but also pedestrians and cyclists. For exam- ple, redirecting traffic from major roads dur- ing peak hours may help overall movement be safer and more efficient.
Traffic access control products are intended primarily for vehicle control. Nevertheless, they may have a role to play in crowd manage- ment by helping to ensure that only legitimate attendees get into a particular event, keeping attendance numbers predictable.
The number-one security measure that should be put into place is securing the perim- eter of your location or event and not allowing a vehicle-borne threat access to these indi- viduals. Traffic management doesn’t only per- tain to the roads and the travelers on them. Most campus streets have areas adjacent to them where people live, work, shop, play and travel. Another goal is to enhance the quality of these local environments.
Some Applications of Traffic Management
Vehicle-access-control products can address traffic management issues with either fixed
or mobile barriers. Fixed barriers are com- pletely stationary and used in places where motor vehicles are never allowed to go. Mobile barriers can be raised or lowered to allow access to certain vehicles but not oth- ers, or to prevent them from entering during particular times of the day.
Some traffic challenges require permanent solutions. Examples of permanent solutions to traffic management problems include restrict- ing vehicle access to pedestrian-only areas; preventing trespassing on a commercial prop- erty outside of business hours; or controlling access to a toll road or private parking lot, allowing only authorized users.
You may require a more permanent solu- tion in a campus' urban area, where you can- not dig a deep foundation because of buried
utility lines. Shallow foundation barriers and bollards require a foundation of only 14 inches but provide protection comparable to those that extend four feet underground. As a bonus, many of the models can be custom- ized to match one's exterior décor. More than 50 types of traffic control devices can meet your unique needs.
Protecting campus perimeters of facilities is no small responsibility. Keeping pedestri- ans safe, protecting structures from acciden- tal or intentional automobile crashes and force protection (keeping employees and visitors from harm) have always been cam- pus safety concerns. A wide variety of cam- puses find peace of mind through the use of barriers, barricades and bollards for vehicle- based physical access control at their perim-
Traffic Management
32 campuslifesecurity.com | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022