Product Focus

If your car park is not optimised to provide the best possible experience, you risk alienating your users before they even step foot inside your constructed space. A recent example in Christchurch illustrates this issue perfectly: a run-down car park on Hawke Street has been blamed for the decline in visitors to a local shopping centre.

Fortunately, with the proper application of traffic management products, you can address these issues before they even arise.  

Does Freedom Works offer traffic management products?  
You bet we do. In keeping with our core mission – protecting people, places, and the planet – we have designed a range of traffic management products that have already been put to good use in schools, shopping malls, residential complexes, and even airports across Aotearoa.  

• Bollards 

  A bollard is a short, strong vertical post that acts as a barrier for vehicles. For example, you could install a line of bollards along a pedestrian footpath to prevent vehicles from making incursions onto the footpath. 
  
  
• Wheel stops 

  A wheel stop is a horizontal wedge installed upon the ground to prevent vehicles from travelling too far forwards. You will often see these products at the front of a parking space, stopping vehicles from overshooting their slot and hitting cars, walls or objects in the opposite space. 

Our wheel stops come in two standard options – a longer option with length of 1830mm, and a shorter option with length of 1650mm. Both are finished in black rubber with reflective chevrons. 
  
  
• Speed humps and speed bumps 

  Most of us are familiar with speed humps already; they’re the raised sections that run across the width of a road, forcing vehicles to slow down as they pass over them. Speed bumps operate in the same manner, but they’re slightly smaller.
  
  These devices are highly recommended for carparks, playgrounds, school zones, and any other area where excessive speed poses a danger to pedestrians and to other vehicles.
  
  Our speed humps come in two heights – 50mm and 75mm – and are finished in black rubber with cat-eye reflectors. 
  
  
• Rumble strips
  A rumble strip creates a tactile and audible warning – a rumble – when a vehicle passes over it, alerting drivers and passengers of upcoming danger zones like merging lanes or road shoulders. Our rumble strips are finished with black and yellow rubber, a high-contrast pattern for ultimate visibility on the road. 
  
  
• Impact protection
  Impact protection products are designed to minimise damage resulting from collisions as well as everyday wear and tear. For example, they protect walls that are at risk of being struck or scratched by vehicles, shopping trolleys, and other objects.
  
  Freedom Works offers protective products like stainless steel guards that can be installed upon corners to limit the effects of impacts on the wall underneath.  

Are traffic management products just for parking lots?  
Traffic management products are used wherever there is a risk of machinery-related impact. This certainly includes parking lots, but it also covers industrial facilities like processing plants, warehouses and factory floors. If your environment has forklifts, pallet trucks, motorised carts, or any other type of fast-moving motorized equipment, you need to use the appropriate safety measures and make sure that your workers, customers, and assets are protected.  

Make it Custom 
Freedom Works often designs custom traffic management products for environments with unique needs. For example, we devised a one-of-a-kind speed cushion for Auckland Airport’s international Transport Hub. Our team worked with the architecture firm Peddlethorp to minimise the vibrations created by the cushion, while also ensuring that the cushion stretched all the way across the vehicle path, preventing smaller vehicles from bypassing it without slowing down.  

Similarly, when we supplied and installed traffic management products for Costco West Auckland, we designed custom red powder-coated bollards that matched the brand's iconic red logo. 

We know that each environment is subject to its own challenges, and we love pushing ourselves to come up with the perfect solution. 

Aesthetics are Important 
Yes, safety is definitely the ultimate function of our traffic management products – but Freedom Works has been partnering with architects for fifteen years now. We understand your inherent desire for visual artistry, and so we offer all of our products in several designs.  
 
Our bollards are available in square and cylindrical shapes, with options of domed, flat, or angle-cut tops. We either make them from galvanised steel, which creates a rustic metal appearance, or stainless steel, which offers excellent durability and creates a clean, shiny look. We can also powder-coat our bollards in different colours to complement your design scheme or to increase the effectiveness of the product. For example, we frequently powder-coat bollards in safety yellow as this bright, highly visible colour improves users’ spatial awareness. 

Freedom Works is also designing an exclusive new range of bollards, one that truly exemplifies our devotion to environmental sustainability as well as aesthetic excellence – so make sure you subscribe to our mailing list to gain access to these products when they’re released. 

When it comes to corner protection, we have a wide variety of shapes available to suit any type of wall or surface. Our polyurethane range comes with a hard plastic outer shell with yellow and black stripes for maximum visibility. Our stainless steel options, on the other hand, are designed to withstand heavier impact while also creating a dignified chromatic effect. 

Code Compliance 
It won’t be a surprise to most architects to learn that the New Zealand Building Code has a comprehensive section dedicated to off-street parking regulations (AS/NZS 2890:1:2009). There is very little point in designing a carpark if your plans are not code compliant. We recommend partnering with our team early on in your project development phase to ensure that you are utilising our products in an efficient, code-compliant manner. 

Finding your design process challenging? 
Traffic management doesn’t have to be a painful process. We encourage you to take advantage of our research, experience, and resources, knowing that our team is always by your side to help your project cross the finish line.  

Contact our team today to get specialist support for all your traffic management needs.