One more word about that suicide-deterrence fence:
While it may appear that little work has been done on the new Aurora Bridge suicide-deterrence fence, that should change this week when the state begins installing fence posts.Much of the work so far has been hidden, including drilling thousands of holes needed to hold anchor bolts for mounting fence brackets, according to the state Department of Transportation.
Although construction began in June, the drilling has been the only visible evidence of bridge work, according to the state.
That's one idea. Here is another idea:
(The Soul at Work) East Japan Railways, one among the several Japenese railway companies, has taken the decision to install mirrors all along Tokyo station platforms. The idea is to make desperate people on the verge of suicide reconsider as they see their reflected image.The mirror relocates the internal to the external. The desperate person sees another person (a person in danger) and realizes that that other person is in fact them. They are the other, the other who is about to die. This sense of being the other in danger triggers the volunteered effect/passion—the feeling we get when someone else is not only in trouble but is completely unaware of this approaching trouble. And so the self saves the life of the other who also happens to be this self. The fence just catches you, the mirror makes you catch yourself.
The Morrison Bridge in Portland uses a picture of a pretty flower as a deterrence:
