Talk:Guard rail

Stairs?

This article doesn't mention staris at all. Since it mentions railings on observation decks, I redirected Railing to here rather than to rail, but there should be a discussion somewhere of hand rails (which now links to rail). —BenFrantzDale 18:59, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Hand rail is the appropriate article for people on foot, climbing stairs, on hiking trails, in stadiums, on observation decks, etc. Hand rails guard people against the danger of falling down. Do we really need to make any distinction between "hand rails" that are merely for the purpose of keeping people on line (queued up) and handrails that keep them from falling out of the upper deck? Wbm1058 (talk) 00:34, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Safety and industry section

Now I dont laugh easily, but i was in hysterics when the non-existant safety and industry section said the short section required expansion. (Willieboyisaloser 16:53, 8 October 2007 (UTC)WillieboyisaloserWillieboyisaloser 16:53, 8 October 2007 (UTC))

And your point is...?

Be bold, find some appropriate references, and expand! --Bossi (talk • gallery • contrib) 19:19, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

British vs. American usage

I suspect that "guard rail" in American English means the highway type, whereas in British English it includes the hand-rail variety. If my suspicion is correct, the article might be less confusing to both British and American readers if this were clarified in the lead. Ccrrccrr (talk) 22:03, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I agree. It would be better to keep the articles guarding people and guarding vehicles separate. The British guardrail article is over at traffic barrier. Don't they realize that barriers guard people too? ;) Wbm1058 (talk) 00:34, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Any chance to get this sorted out? Right now the traffic barrier article is not even mentioned on Guardrail_(disambiguation), whereas this article is listed as "installed on road sides or medians (central reservations) for automobile safety", which doesn't match the current content. The confusion also affects the wikidata items. I agree with the suggestion to separate the "guarding people" and "guarding vehicles" variants.--Tobias K. (talk) 08:11, 7 September 2014 (UTC)

Guard rail is a broader concept which includes people and vehicles. The traffic barrier is specific to vehicles. The American term "guard rail" is basically the traffic barrier. The way with these two articles as they are now seems good. Guard rail has the main article link to traffic barrier when talking about automobiles. I fixed the disambiguation page to link to both articles. Z22 (talk) 15:26, 7 September 2014 (UTC)

Height standards

The discussion is missing content regarding their effective heights for people. I've come across several older buildings that have portions closed off because the historical guardrails are too low and thus not up to code. Perhaps because we've gotten taller? I'm going to assume that heights are determined by measuring the average cg of drunk people to ensure they can't tip over them inadvertently. Hope someone can confirm this.--Hooperbloob (talk) 20:19, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

One would have to quote current building codes. Peter Horn User talk 13:29, 27 July 2017 (UTC)

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Flexible posts

Perhaps a section about flexible posts could be added. In Quebec they are often used in rows to separate roads from bicycle paths. Peter Horn User talk 13:25, 27 July 2017 (UTC)

Okay, these are flexible bollards. Peter Horn User talk 21:20, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

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Grammar and syntax issues

Grammar and syntax are little rough in a few places. While they don't affect substance, they do reflect on overall readability. I'll edit a few items, but a good editing once-over would improve the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.73.213.182 (talk) 20:46, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

Automotive safety section is clearly an advertising stint.

Parts of this section need to be edited/removed as they are clearly advertising for Midwest Guardrail Systems. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.148.176.70 (talk) 23:13, 8 January 2022 (UTC)

Political Guardrails

I don't have any special expertise to discuss this, but I found this article due to the widespread use of a guardrail metaphor that is currently being used in American politics. Does it make sense to at least stub out a section on the metaphorical political use? I really do not mind contributing. It is just considering that I am likely not the only one to find this article in this way, I don't want to do anything that might compromise the integrity of an internet source that has been exceedingly useful. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.29.214.155 (talk)

I am not familiar with the metaphor usage in US politics, but Wikipedia is not a dictionary so I have linked to Wiktionary (our sister dictionary project) from the relevant disambiguation page. Does the "figurative, by extension" definition at wikt:guardrail match your use case? I am not sure what you meant by "stub out", but this article is purely about the barrier device. It could be possible to create a new article called Guardrail (metaphor), I am not sure how appropriate that is. Thanks for volunteering to contribute, we can always do with more help around here :-)--Commander Keane (talk) 18:04, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

While I understand that Wikipedia should not take any geographical perspectives, it certainly does not make sense to view this as simply a different dictionary definition. Guardrails were not a particularly common term in the US until about 10 years ago, when it became necessary to define the systems that kept politicians' whims from calamity. The guardrails metaphor made perfect sense. By stubbing out this article, I just meant adding another paragraph with a rough (readable) outline that could be filled in with someone with more experience than me. It would probably make more sense in a separate article though. I am positive that every nation on Earth has benefited from putting "guardrails" on their leaders, and an article detailing those guardrails would be useful 71.29.214.155 (talk) 19:49, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

The term guardrails is also used in computing to refer to software features that aid in accessibility (for example, ARIA attributes in HTML code are a form of guardrail, since it helps screen readers present elements in an appropriate manner). Kokoshneta (talk) 12:19, 18 December 2025 (UTC)

Off topic material removed

This article is about physical guard rails. It is not about the term "guard rail"; Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a dictionary. As such, the text regarding "technological" (which really meant "software") guard rails, based on no sources at all, was off topic. I've removed it. Hairy Dude (talk) 13:27, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

It is certainly not off-topic to mention that the physical feature has given rise to well-established metaphorical uses in politics and software. I agree it shouldn’t be located at the very top, but noting extended uses of words, names and terminology is perfectly on-topic (with links to main articles, if available); for example, the article on Benedict Arnold describes in great detail the metaphorical use of his name to mean ‘traitor’. Kokoshneta (talk) 12:31, 18 December 2025 (UTC)