The big problem around here JD is icy roads, something I'm sure you're familiar with in Michigan. Most people will slow down (sometimes because they have no choice) for 12" of snow, but many won't for an icy road.
Add to that, constricting road maintenance budgets - unless they are trying to deliberately run down the budget at the end of the season, many areas won't roll trucks for less than a certain minimum amount of snow.
At the high velocities many people drive on rural roads, at least around here, these post and wire barriers get hit often. One winter, I was talking about this with the Fire Chief at the next town south of me. Pretty well every post and wire barrier was smashed up pretty well, between my town and his. The difference in setback here between a mailbox and these barriers probably ranges from 3' to probably 10' max. At speed, on ice, often people don't get stopped in the extra few feet - many of these vehicles end up hundreds of feet beyond the barrier, they are going that fast.
I bring this up, because it is a significant safety issue. I picked up the term "cheesecutter" from a civil engineer I was talking to - many people have seen how a wire cheesecutter works, these cedar post barriers work pretty much the same. This engineer related having to explain a picture to new crews who were being trained on dealing with accident scenes "No, those aren't sacks of potatoes in that wrecked car". They keep burlap bags in the road service trucks, to put over the torsos after the roof pillars get sliced off by the wire barriers. As I've posted before, most anybody over 3' tall gets decapitated.
These post and wire barriers were designed way back - cars then were tall (compared to todays cars), mounted on heavy frames. The wire barrier was mostly intended to align with and stop the frame on old cars. Today's cars, being low and aerodynamic, can often go under and through the wire if they are going fast enough.
The civil engineer I was talking to worked in Toronto. Years ago, they even had these post/wire barriers around the city. They have mostly all been replaced in Toronto with more modern barriers today.
The problem in most of Canada (big country, not many people), and parts of the USA, just comes down to $$$, as with most things. We have many many thousands of miles of roads with these old style barriers in place, to replace them all at once is not in the cards.
In a given county, what they usually try and do is upgrade the barriers that get crashed into the most, first. That road south of me has a long steep valley, that often ices up badly, esp. at 4:30am - some of those barriers finally got upgraded over the last 2 years.
I should apologize for somewhat drifting this thread, as you probably won't get too far trying to argue with your local county about the safety of these post/wire barriers. Typically, driven by their legal counsel, the standard line is "There is nothing wrong with these barriers". Until you talk with somebody inside the "road" industry, you usually won't get the real story.
People moving out to, or traveling through, the country often don't understand this legacy road hazard.
If you live in the flatlands, and drive on straight roads with no ice conditions, you are lucky in this respect.
Rgds, D.
