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My guess is that it was a design decision. A deeper and narrower railing, which would be more comfortable to use, would also ruin the visual lines of the railing design - this blends in with the wire from a distance. An engineer probably made the decision to make it wider for the very reason Canard notes - a narrow railing in that orientation is going to bend far too easily. Neither really considered the user, it seems, since we're left with a railing that is uncomfortable to use at best, and ineffective at worst.
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I've been by it and I can Bend it without much effort. I don't know that it'll be bent permanently with ease, though, as there's not much sag (though sag is definitely visible) to work into a bend.
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That sounds like a terrible design just asking to be abused by vandals.
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The sag on these is pretty bad.
I guess that because of the slope of the sidewalk, they needed a hand rail. It will be useful when there's freezing rain, for sure. But wow, does it look mediocre.
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(07-11-2016, 10:36 AM)Markster Wrote: The sag on these is pretty bad.
I guess that because of the slope of the sidewalk, they needed a hand rail. It will be useful when there's freezing rain, for sure. But wow, does it look mediocre.
Also, because of its shape, it doesn't look like it would work well in freezing rain anyway, certainly not as well as a round railing that you can grip.
This seems like one of these over designed artistically focused, functionality be damned situations. The whole railing, heck, the whole pathway has this problem.
Also, who should i contact about putting up proper signage for the multi-use trail here?
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(07-11-2016, 10:36 AM)Markster Wrote: The sag on these is pretty bad.
I guess that because of the slope of the sidewalk, they needed a hand rail. It will be useful when there's freezing rain, for sure. But wow, does it look mediocre.
I honestly don't believe that is intended to be a handrail. There is no hand-hold (unless something is to be added to the flat portion shown in the photo) and it passes behind a post. A handrail would be set out closer to the sidewalk. I remain mystified.
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07-11-2016, 02:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-11-2016, 02:46 PM by Canard.)
Why not reach out on Twitter to Jane Mitchell or Berry? Both of them are quite active/responsive to social media.
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That's clearly not intended as a handrail. And it's not a building code issue since there is no building there.  My guess is that it's adding structural rigidity to the posts.
The steel does look quite thick in the photos so I'm surprised if it's already sagging.
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07-12-2016, 06:55 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-12-2016, 06:56 AM by Canard.)
Structural ridgity! Those weldments supporting the fence wires have got to be the world's largest fence posts!! There's no way that piece of flat bar is structural to support the weldments.
This is baffling. I'm guessing we'll have as many pages of speculation on this project as we have in be ion thread!
@Pheidippides: Permission to tweet your pic to get an answer?
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In no way is it structural. The concrete riser that the fence sits on also makes it a noticeable distance to reach over to grab it as a handrail, likely not the easiest for anyone who might need it as such. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some code about the grade of the sidewalk there, dipping under the railway, that required it to have a handrail of some sort. It's very clearly a huge afterthought.
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Why would it be an after thought? The spot on the posts that the "handrails" are attached to are present on every post, made out of the same treated metal. They had to have been built into the posts initially.
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I like how in Toronto, they can't figure out how to build transit. Here, our biggest problem is a railing. 
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I think it's to keep people back from the wires a bit.
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They really don't look like railings. The only thing I can think of is that you could hang planters from them. I hope that time will tell what they really are.
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07-12-2016, 10:54 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-12-2016, 10:54 AM by Canard.)
...then why have wires? smh
The wires are the fence/protective element.
Maybe the metal bar is for a monorail to the airport.
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