From its description, delineator posts may sound like simple traffic cones and indeed businesses, construction workers, and even homeowners have used simple orange traffic cones for everything from reserved parking to indicating holes in the sidewalk. But traffic cones are extremely basic, and there are occasions where safety managers may want to use delineator posts instead.
While the orange posts may seem quite similar, (often made with the same high visibility colors and a similar polyethylene rubber material,) delineator posts are different in the following key ways:
- Typically only 18-28 inches tall, (and occasionally 36 inches tall), standard traffic cones tend to be shorter than a delineator post, which is roughly 45 inches tall.
- While there are devices that can be attached to traffic cones to turn them into a more complete barrier, this is a deviation from the standard use and requires attachments of some kind. Delineator posts like this one for sale at Crowd Control Warehouse include a loop at the top through which simple caution tape or plastic chain can be looped through to easily create a more complete barrier.
- This loop at the top of a delineator post makes it very easy to pick up and transport.
Now that we’ve defined it a bit, let’s talk
about how to use delineator posts.
Delineator Post Setup:
Delineator posts have
an extremely simple design which makes them very easy to set up and use. The
post has a loop or handles at the top and a slight lip at the bottom where a
vulcanized rubber base can be slipped into place. The rubber simply slides onto
the post and rests on the lip at the base. Weighing around 10 pounds, this
rubber base provides stability to the delineator post.
When you simply need
to mark an area where caution is needed or create a small but highly visible
notice for something out-of-use or off-limits, that’s often all that’s needed.
Other times, you may want to create a more complete barrier that more substantially
blocks pedestrians from passing through.
In this case, caution
tape or plastic chain
can be looped through the delineator
post handles, as shown in the image below:
Where To Put
Delineator Posts:
Delineator posts like these are both portable and adaptable. This makes them ideal
for temporary maintenance or reconstruction projects. But they can be used for
more than just that.
Here are some of the places where people use delineator posts:
- At outdoor events like fairs, flea markets, and farmer's markets people may set these up around the parking perimeter to ensure pedestrians and drivers alike understand where vehicles will be parking. They may also be used to surround the perimeter of an outdoor event to create a clear entry and exit point.
- Delineators are commonly used to create a small separation where bike lanes may exist alongside the main road.
- When the flow of traffic (either vehicle or foot traffic) must be diverted because of temporary construction or renovation, delineator posts can be placed around the boundaries of the new pathway to indicate where the traffic is meant to flow, since the standard permanent indicators may be interrupted during construction. For instance, if a sidewalk is blocked off, a temporary sidewalk detour through the parking lanes or the road may be created with delineator posts so that both pedestrians and vehicles understand where foot traffic may be.
- Parking lots with specific parking spots which should not be used by the general public, or which are temporarily unsafe may use these delineators with plastic chains to create an obvious, but easily movable barrier. This way a reserved spot can still be accessed by the proper person.
- Parking lots also use delineator posts to draw attention to areas where there may be pedestrians within the parking lot, such as around dumpsters which are commonly placed in parking lots, or along with bike racks.
To learn more about how to use delineator
posts or where to put them within your own space, feel free to contact crowd
control specialists. You can find products like these for sale online at Crowd Control
Warehouse for instance.
