Cycling in Waterloo Region

[taylortbb]

If you drive into a fixed metal object with an infinitely small cross sectional area at the point of contact, it poses a massive safety risk to the occupant of the vehicle.

While this is true, if the metal bollard isn't there then the car is driving into a cyclist (potentially) which is a massively safety risk for the cyclist. Given the presence of crumple zones on cars, and the lack of them on cyclists, I think it makes more sense for the car to take the impact.

I definitely get your point on most roads where it's a grassy median or other place that we don't expect pedestrians/cyclists to be, but for the case of the bike lanes the damage to the car is to protect the occupant of the bike lane.