@white_swan53 Said
I totally get where you're coming from when you say as a society you won't kow-tow to terrorists. But how does incorporating safety measures similar to what shino suggested fall under the heading of kow-towing ? Putting dirt filled decorative planters around so your citizens have a place they can get to ,out of someone's way who was hell bent on 'body count' seems like it would be more of a F**K YOU to the guy instead . He would most likely have heavy damage to his car and possibly be injured himself and your citizens would be alive and healthy to give wittiness against the guy. just saying .
I really do get what you're saying, believe me. But as I said previously, many of our roads are quite narrow as are the pavements. There simply isn't the room for such things in a condensed and crowded, busy city.
Having said that, these things do exist in some places where it is practicable but it's simply not feasible everywhere. And Central London.... where an attack is most likely to be targeted, is one of those places.
Your own, much wider thoroughfares are not the sort of thing you'd see here.
London was founded by the Romans and has developed over 1000 years+. The last major re-design of the whole city occurred in 1666 after the Great Fire of London. We didn't have motor cars back then and even Christopher Wren (rebuilt the City and designed St Paul's Cathedral) didn't foresee the sheer volume of people and traffic that we have now.
And if you think that makes London sound primitive, just try getting around Paris or Rome in the daytime..!! Europe is OLD. Very OLD. That needs to be considered.
You may have noticed a couple of posts back that Manky Sparrow.... who lives in Central London.... could see where I'm coming from. I was born and raised in Greenwich.
Two Londoners are trying to tell you something about London. I know your comments are well intended and I appreciate them, but you don't know the city.
For what it's worth, I think the incident of ramming was more opportunist than planned. It's just my estimation, but I think he was headed for his principal target of Parliament and he saw the crowd of people on the bridge in just the right place to do what he did and he went for it.
Collateral damage. Where have we heard that one before.
Usually, the sheer volume of traffic in Central London would prevent anybody from driving fast enough to do such a thing but as terrible as it sounds for those poor people, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong moment.