Pros and cons of rubber parking kerbs!

Parking requires precision and vigilance, which many newbie drivers don’t possess.

Therefore, parking can be a nightmare for many newbie drivers since there can always be unpredictable incidents, such as hitting sidewalks and colliding with other automobiles in the parking lots.

However, many people aren’t aware of the parking safety measures which can reduce these incidents. Parking kerbs are one solution designed by the engineering department to create a sealing obstruction between vehicles and other obstacles.

However, numerous parking kerb materials for manufacturing wheel stops make it difficult to identify the most suitable one. Rubber, in general, is increasingly becoming people’s choice due to its exciting pros.

If you’d like to learn about different types of car stops, feel free to check out here: Discover different types of car stops!

Let’s delve into the specifications of what makes rubber an effective material for parking stops.

Pros of rubber parking kerbs

Care to know what makes rubber an effective material to prevent accidents in parking spots? Let’s see some of their lesser-known benefits:

• It’s very difficult to settle a thing on an uneven surface. Fortunately, rubber is extremely flexible and can accommodate any rough terrain. Be it gravel or aggregate pavements and curbs, rubber wheel stops will stay still on the ground.

• Many people believe that rubber can break and deform over time. Well, you cannot expect the same with vulcanized rubber. In simple terms, vulcanization is a process of making rubber harder and indestructible.
  No matter what type of vehicle or how many times a vehicle hits rubber, wheel stops will remain still and not budge. Rubber can be your go-to option if you’re looking to install a long-lasting wheel stop for your asphalt driveway.

• Rubber can get permanent paint by moulding well with any paint. White & red or yellow & black are popular colour combos for wheel stops because they are highly reflective, allowing drivers to spot parking spaces easily.
  Some rubber wheel stops also have reflective strips embedded in their structure, reflecting high-intensity light and increasing visibility in dark surroundings. You can even get rubber wheel stops in blue, which is useful for the handicapped and can enable disabled parking.

• Rubber comes from recycled materials such as rubber tires, making it 100% environmentally friendly. Therefore, recycled rubber wheel stops benefit the environment and increase pedestrian safety.

• Most rubber wheel stops have impervious surfaces and are resistant to UV and severe weather conditions, preventing them from cracking soon. Therefore, if you have several garages and want to improve parking safety, you know which wheel stop will help you create a parking garage.

Cons of rubber parking kerbs

Do rubber wheel stops fulfil your preferences for an ideal parking stop? They seem perfect, which they surely are, but they have very insignificant shortcomings that you must know.

Here are the most recurring and noteworthy cons of rubber stops:

• Despite going through a tough vulcanisation process, rubber parking curbs are malleable, and some can deform over time. Therefore, they might not be durable enough for parking spaces.

• While the paint can be moulded with rubber, there have been many instances of the paint fading away. If the paint gets light, it’s difficult to repaint it all over again. Reduced visibility can cause injuries to pedestrians and damage to public properties.

• Since rubber wheel stops involve several processes for increasing strength, they can come off as expensive.

Alternative popular materials for wheel stops

Rubber is not the only material to manufacture wheel stops. Following are some other popular choices which give competition to rubber:

• Concrete

Have you seen huge asphalt or concrete slabs near the parking lot line? Those are concrete wheel stops. Concrete has long been a useful historical material from the construction industry to the traffic industry with many applications.

They can weigh up to 500 lbs and remain fixated on one position when settling on the parking spots. Hence, concrete stops are quite durable.

Also, be it blue for handicapped parking or standard for regular parking areas, you can paint them in any colour. While the colour can fade away, the maintenance is affordable, and you can get it repainted easily.

However, concrete has a permeable structure with porous elements, making it susceptible to natural elements such as snow thaw and water. In such cases, there are chances for concrete slabs to crack.

• Plastic

Scattered everywhere around you, plastic is a prominent material for wheel stops. Wondering what the main speciality of plastic is? Extremely high endurance and strength make it a great material for parking spots.

Even huge emergency vehicles, like buses, fire trucks, ambulances, and trawlers, cannot break it. The reason for this is that there are grades of plastic. Polyurethane (PU), the hardest plastic, can endure up to 40,000 lbs.

Despite having heavy strength, plastic is 20% the weight of concrete, making it simple to install. With hammers, bolts, and a drilling machine, you’re all set to go.

If you are overlooking several parking facilities and want to prevent accidents between heavy-duty vehicles, plastic wheel stops are what you need.

Alternative less popular materials for wheel stops

Some traffic engineering departments have leapt forward to create wheel stops with rare and lesser-known material. Wondering what they could be?

The following are the two of them:

• Steel

• Wood

Even galvanised steel is a popular material to reduce accidents in parking lot lines.

Due to galvanisation, the steel won’t rust and can have a powder coating, making it extremely visible even in the fog. Steel wheel stops can create huge resistance to stop a vehicle’s wheels from moving forward.

You can probably spot them at reserved parking spots or parallel parking in supermarkets. Steel wheel stops prevent vehicles in parallel parking from moving forward and colliding. Hence, despite being rare, it’s a good choice for wheel stops.

Not many have heard of it, but wood logs can also act as wheel stops because they can thrive for 20-25 years. However, it’s not easy to paint them; they usually exist in their natural colour, making them difficult to spot.

Other tools for preventing parking hazards

There’s no doubt that wheel stops are an amazing invention that has reduced damage to vehicles and structures such as mirrors, walls, and pavements. Despite these lifesavers, transportation engineers and the transportation department have several new measures.

Here are some of them:

• Using parking permits and lane markings can help indicate to the motorist about the walkways and the designated parking spaces.

• Installing shiny bollards can act as visuals for drivers to stay vigilant.

• Police enforcement uses fines to discourage drivers from reducing street parking, which may be illegal according to the specific area.

• Educating the public about the parking signs, stop signs, and parking regulations.

Conclusion

Property owners must consider safety measures for protecting their vehicles and increasing pedestrian safety. Are you planning to install rubber wheel stops in your private property, driveways, and offices?

Or are you a state officer overlooking the parking facilities in your city streets and roadways and want to prevent parking accidents?

In such scenarios, Sino Concept is here to help you. We have rubber wheel stops made from vulcanized rubber, which can last a lifetime. We can even change the colour of the wheel stops upon request. Contact us on our website for a quotation for your preferred product.

We even have other traffic control devices like speed bumps, ramps, cushions, and humps. Visit our website to see our offerings and get a package deal on your order.