Quote Originally Posted by Brian Elfert View Post
Why is it okay for highway departments to place massive bridge piers at the edge of a road, but a reinforced mail box is a liability issue. I doubt too many people win liability cases against the highway department.

There is a local interstate with a bridge pier built partly into the shoulder. The bad part is the pier is shortly after the the end of an entrance ramp. If you can't merge into traffic for some reason and continue down the shoulder you run a large risk of hitting that bridge pier. No new bridges would ever be built that way because it isn't considered a safe design.
Any bridge pier (or anything else substantial like a concrete lightpole base) within striking distance will have a guardrail for exactly that reason.