After this dry cleaners in West Hartford’s Bishops Corner was smashed through twice by cars in the last two years, massive, highly visible bollards were installed between the parking lot and sidewalk. Considering how busy this plaza is, between the cleaners, supermarket, and coffee shop, it’s a miracle nobody was struck either of those times. Perhaps nobody needed to see what would occur on a third building strike.

Drivers hit people inside buildings less rarely than one might imagine. This happened in the Bishops Corner Staples/Panera/McDonalds plaza in 2017. Just a few months earlier in Bishops Corner, someone backed their vehicle into a residence, narrowly missing the people inside.

What we learn about driver-takes-car-through-building incidents, if anything, is that the driver “mistook the gas for the brakes,” which feels very euphemistic and I don’t know why we’re afraid to come out and say the obvious: we need to require road tests for license renewal, and not only of those over a certain age.

This is also a moment when we should ask why we design vehicles to have this degree of power. How is it that a parked vehicle is able to reach such speeds that it is able to damage a building in seconds and before the driver has time to react and hit the brakes? In most of these incidents, it does not appear that the drivers exactly got a running start. They’re beginning just a few feet away.

There are a few other layers to this issue.

We could rethink the way we design parking lots altogether. Why allow parking directly next to the building? Most lots are large enough to function just fine by removing the kind of parking that enables a vehicle to quickly go from a designated space into where people were sitting by a window sipping their lattes. If you observe the Crown lot specifically, watch how people are backing out of those front row spaces as people are backing from the second row, as people are driving in from Route 44, often still in racetrack mode. The bollards are a good start, but nobody’s losing profits if the parking lot is redesigned to be more sensible. Most of the spaces along the trees are typically unused.

The bigger issue, though, is how much people use cars. I’m not going to say “rely” because often this is choice. It goes beyond what is available for public transportation, though every bus route that serves this area could double its frequency — and when it comes to the 72, just exist at all on weekends. The norm should not be to drive from plaza-to-plaza. Not for the general able-bodied population. If West Hartford — or any town — wants less congestion, fewer buildings damaged by cars, and better air quality, then they need to design for those outcomes. The way to that is by prioritizing infrastructure that serves pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users.

But until there’s appetite for seriously changing places to be more livable, keep adding bollards.

Climate Possibilities is a series about climate mitigation, along with resilience, resistance, and restoration. It’s about human habitat preservation. It’s about loving nature and planet Earth, and demanding the kind of change that gives future generations the opportunity for vibrant lives. Doomers will be eaten alive, figuratively. All photographs are taken in Hartford, Connecticut unless stated otherwise.