Where do the metal strips beside the road come from?

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elpenguino

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#269973 17-Apr-2020 16:46

Anyone who walks or rides a bike must see as many of these strips in the gutter as I do. They are the size and shape of a coping saw blade, about 5mm x 125mm, but they're blank, i.e. no teeth, holes, notches or any other features.

They're also usually rusty by the time I see them so they're probably made of lowish quality steel.

Where do they come from?

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

DarthKermit

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#2464316 17-Apr-2020 16:55

I know what you mean. I think they're from windscreen wiper blades.

elpenguino

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#2464335 17-Apr-2020 17:21

DarthKermit:

I know what you mean. I think they're from windscreen wiper blades.

I replaced some rubbers recently - the strips of steel are stainless(ish), thicker and much longer.

The stray strips you see are all generally the same length, more or less. I would expect wider variation in length if it was a car part.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

Bung

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#2464336 17-Apr-2020 17:21

There wouldn't be many wiper blades that are only 125mm long. Google suggests bristles from street sweepers.

froob

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#2464366 17-Apr-2020 18:22

I had been meaning to ask the same thing - you see these everywhere. I had expected them to be something to do with road works, but street sweepers would make sense.

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Jarno

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#2466307 20-Apr-2020 15:03

Our street is in a state of being resealed (currently suspended due to the lockdown). They have embedded metal strips sticking out of the new seal to indicate where the old road markings were. The strips are a bit bigger than described (about 1cm wide, sticking out about 4cm), but maybe they use different strips in different places. The strips are also colour-coded with white or yellow paint depending on the colour of the road marking.

elpenguino

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#2467052 21-Apr-2020 13:09

@Bung seems correct, these are broken off street sweeper bristles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DOwMr_T4_A

Shame the street sweeper can't clean up after itself :-)

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

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MikeB4

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#2467062 21-Apr-2020 13:20

That is not cool and the councils should be cleaning these up. Maybe a magnet on the back of the cleaners. These will find their way into waters ways.

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cyril7

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#2467115 21-Apr-2020 14:33

Not what you would want to spear your tire with.............. could they not trail a large electro magnet behind the sweeper, it would pick up its own mess plus any other nails and ferros cr@p left on the street.

Cyril

elpenguino

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#2467145 21-Apr-2020 15:20

MikeB4:

That is not cool and the councils should be cleaning these up. Maybe a magnet on the back of the cleaners. These will find their way into waters ways.

I don't think they'll migrate very far because they're too heavy to float, if they do get into a drain they'll sit on the bottom.

They're usually found near the gutter so unlikely to spear a car tyre but yeah, I wouldn't want one to flick up at me while I was walking.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21