Questions about our new gate.

There have been several questions on why our gates are being broken so often and the costs to SPA. Here are some answers from what I know. Tom

Question:
Are we breaking even on the maintenance/replacement  of these new gates? It seems like it is taking quite a while for the newness to wear off the  public to realize they are there and need to be respected. When I look at these bills I am surprised at the costs and I wanted to know if the offenders are compensating us for their carelessness in each case. Driving through a closed or closing gate seems to be more common now than before when we had big heavy gates.

Answer:
We have caught all four of the perpetuators and they are paying all costs. Our new cameras have already paid for them selves. These gates are much easier to fix and now we have a spare that Ken can put back up in a few minutes till broken one is replaced or fixed.

Our actual maintenance costs on gates will be substantially less. The old gates were costing us a mint to maintain and when they were damaged much longer down times .

The issue seems to be at the north gate. This could be a combination of several factors. First the gate comes down faster to try and keep people from tail gating into SP so there is a learning curve.

Second it is darker around the gate and, since most of these have occurred late afternoon, sun might be making it more difficult to see the lights on the gate at that time. One solution is to add reflective bumps at the kiosk or just north of it like we have at the south gate.

Thirdly, it might make sense to have big white or yellow painted criss crosses from Kiosk to gate. Visual cues do work as several studies show. Also our decorating the gates should slow people down because it will appear narrower when there is more stuff on the sides of the gates. We intend on investigating all these potential solutions.

Lastly we need to make a big sign that says:

“ If Gate is Red, Watch your head!”