No matter how simple and insignificant street furniture may seem, they actually play very big roles in the lives of people. For one, the fixtures that are kept preserved for years can serve as beautiful historical landmarks, that can make us realize past events. More than that, they also make the streets safer places just like what lampposts do. Bollards are also street furniture pieces that provide protection to pedestrians and drivers on the streets. Park benches, on the other hand, are ideal examples of street furniture and they endlessly give people resting places whenever they want to spend time outdoors.

Common Types of Street Fixtures:

1. Street signs. These are small rectangular plates that are usually made of aluminium put on posts that indicate the name of the streets.

2. Bollards. These are short pillars of poles that can be seen standing and lining on sidewalks. They serve as barriers between the vehicles and the pedestrians.

3. Post/mail boxes. They come in different shapes and colours based from the country’s colour coding. The post boxes of UK and Japan are shaped like round pillars while in Australia and in the United States, their mail boxes are rectangular in shape.

4. Telephone booths/phone boxes. Almost all cities in the world have phone boxes that are designated on various parts of their streets. They also have varieties off designs. There are some who only have covers for the main phone while there are those that have full cover like the full booth. However, today, the numbers of telephone booths are decreasing due to the popularity of mobile phones.

5. Streetlamps. These are usually seen on sides or corners of the streets to give illumination to passersby. The colour of the bulbs of streetlamps varies but the most popularly used bulbs are the whites and yellows.

6. Traffic lights. These fixtures can be either placed on the middle or on the side of the street. Traffic lights have three colours that stand for three different traffic movements. Green means go, yellow or amber is primarily a transition colour signalling motorists that the colour will change soon, and red stands for stop. Traffic lights can either be mounted on tall posts or hung on wires.

7.Traffic signs. These vary in shape according to the signs they signify. Traffic signs indicate the conditions of the road such as a blind-curve or a U-turn.

Metal: Popular Material for Street fixtures

Metal street fixtures are considered as the most widely used type of street furniture because of their durability. There are three different methods used for construction:

1. Casting. The molten metal is poured on a cast bearing that form the finished product. The cast will be removed once the metal has already solidified. The metal pieces from casting are mostly solid in form unlike the products from metal extrusion.

2. Extrusion. Molten metal is forced into long pipes to make them form long slim tubes that are hollow in the middle.

3. Forging. This is a process wherein the metal is hammered and heated to form the shape of hardened shaped metal. Metal furniture made through this process is called wrought metal fixtures. The different pieces of the metal can be either joined through bolting or by welding.

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Category: Home Management
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