Talk:Guide rail

Merge out
Regardless of the specific terminology of "guard" or "guide", the subject matter here is a type of traffic barrier, and as such should be treated with all the rest of the information currently at guard rail. Or, if the merge currently proposed there goes through, at traffic barrier. This page should then be replaced with a redirect to the appropriate page or section. — DragonHawk (talk|hist) 02:10, 20 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I support merger with Traffic barrier. --Triskele Jim (talk) 06:17, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

New Content and Hard Edit
This is a rich topic that is only partially covered by the original author. I have researched and posted a revised edition for review. -- Debi Brady DeWriterMD (talk) 23:26, 12 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Hmm. Where? — A876 (talk) 06:57, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Guard rail IS NOT "guide rail"
I have always found the term "guide rail" a misnomer for what have always been "guard rails" along highways. They are two utterly different things. At first I found it funny, possibly a typo, due to illiteracy in one sign shop. Then I found it annoying. But it recurred too long, and too often, and in too many states. And finally I find it profoundly disgusting — that some few can so abuse our language and impose that abuse on us. Today I learned that the term really is official, at least in PA ("... Guide rail (formerly called guard rail) ...", as quoted in this article).

Funny is the mental image of the rail actually guiding drivers at all times, and the fear one should experience when signs warn of "NO GUIDE RAIL" ahead — how will I know which way to drive? Oh wait, there are those white and yellow lines on the pavement. So then the guide rail is there to guide the visually handicapped. I'd love to drive an old wreck 100 miles, rubbing against the "guide rail" all the way — and then ask the state trooper what is his objection, because I am entitled to use the guide rail for its stated function.

Angering is the Orwellian renaming of something to suit some hidden agenda. I'm sure someone thinks the name "guard rail" is faulty because it implies a warranty that nothing will ever get get past the rail. That could cause liability issues, because thousands of people die every year, flying over guard rails that could have (or should have) been stronger. Guide rails guide things — they continuously direct or redirect passing objects by contact force. A guard rail imposes a separation between areas, stopping or deflecting objects that unexpectedly crash into it, due to errant trajectory. The guard rails on highways will never be guide rails, regardless who calls them that. Do we need English professors and ethics professors to point out this fraud, so that students who reach the bureaucratic heights might someday undo it?

In spite of this diseased renaming against function, so-called "guard rails" seem to be categorized as traffic barriers. That article begins "Traffic barriers keep vehicles within their roadway and prevent vehicles from colliding with dangerous obstacles. Traffic barriers installed at the road side also prevent errant vehicles from traversing steep (non-recoverable) slopes." Those are clearly guarding functions, against errant vehicles — nothing to do with guidance. Other kinds of traffic barriers, used similarly if not interchangeable with "guide rail", are cable barriers. (There's that pesky "barrier" word again.) (Why is a rigid rail merely a "guide", while a flexible cable gets to be a "barrier"? It just isn't fair.) The Orwellian renamers must be in a quandary on how to defuse these surviving simple, honest terms. How about "passive inertia managers"?

"Guide rail" is one thing; "guard rail" is something else. No way should these two be merged, regardless of abusage.

"Traffic barrier" is a broad family of devices. "Guard rail" should keep its separate article, just like "cable barrier" and "Jersey barrier". — A876 (talk) 06:57, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

According to the US Federal Highway Administration, "The terms guardrail and guiderail are synonymous, and are used in different regions around the country." W-Beam Guardrail - FHWA Safety Program152.17.120.32 (talk) 23:01, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Railway guide rail on the Sapporo Municipal Subway
Re Guide rail: It would be nice to have an actual X section of the guide rail on the Sapporo Municipal Subway. That said, the entire section should perhaps become a section on rail profile Peter Horn User talk 20:57, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

Railway guide rail on the Lille Metro
Likewise the X section of the guiderail of the Lille Metro Peter Horn User talk 23:05, 15 January 2021 (UTC)