It took decades, but San Francisco finally installs nets to stop suicides off Golden Gate Bridge

How about instead of nets, we instead install a functioning mental health care system. This has ‘put bulletproof vests on school kids’ written all over it.

The US government is going to do literally everything it can other than provide universal Healthcare until the country collapses.

This reminds me of the time San Francisco decided to do something about it's human-feces-in-the-BART-escalator-wells problem, not by making public restrooms available to unsheltered folk, but building stupid awnings to keep people from pooping inside. The awnings cost more than the toilets would have and people just pooped on the sidewalks instead. ℹ️🫶🌉😀

Reminds me of that Bojack Horseman poem.

"But this is it, the deed is done silence drowns the sound. Before I leaped I should've seen the view from halfway down.

I really should’ve thought about the view from halfway down. I wish I could've known about the view from halfway down—"

Love the NIMBY ass “we don’t want effective barriers to keep people from jumping because then we cant see the view, so put in an invisible torture device that will horribly maim and punish people already so far gone they’ve decided to end it” approach. Really sums up San Francisco. Why don’t they just install a fucking Suicide Booth at each end of the bridge. They clearly aren’t after stopping attempts, they just don’t want to look at it. Easier to find a corpse in the human fishing net 20 feet down than trolling the bay.

The nets — placed 20 feet (6 meters) down from the bridge’s deck — are not visible from cars crossing the bridge. But pedestrians standing by the rails can see them. They were built with marine-grade stainless steel that can withstand the harsh environment that includes salt water, fog and strong winds

20 foot drop onto "nets" made of stainless steel? I feel like this may still be a fatal fall.

Edit: I'm not negative on the idea, but it sounds like you are still having a pretty bad time if one of these nets saves your life.

We make fun of China for installing similar nets on their buildings. Maybe we can consider some time actually doing something about the cause of suicide rather than just stopping the action. Healthcare, especially mental healthcare, poverty, housing. But no, just nets.

But golden gate doesn't have anything inherent that pushes people to commit suicide. I feel like it's wasted money if the only thing this means is that this will happen somewhere else, what's the point then? Wouldn't it be spent better on mental healthcare for those who need it the most?

Edit 0: (I'm not super angry that they did install the nets, sure why not, it's not that expensive anyways, but I don't really feel like it solves the real issue. I'm mostly talking from my opinions and I don't have that many facts on this topic, maybe tackling suicide hot-spots does indeed reduce the statistic, I sincerely hope so but I doubt it)

Edit 1: After reading the article https://archive.is/Uuyx3 suggested by @Chetzemoka@startrek.website I feel like I was wrong in my initial assessment. Indeed it looks like there is a category of impulsive suicide that might be avoided with these barriers. I thank everyone who is contributing solid arguments to this difficult conversation. Despite the disagreements I see on the comments I believe we are all united in the feeling that this is a painful tragedy that we don't want to be part of this world

meeting resistance from people who did not want to alter the iconic landmark

Well this attitude leads to not only increased homelessness, buy I guess also suicide rates 🙁

There is a pretty harrowing documentary about people jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Apparently it happens so often that if you set up a camera, after long enough you will catch lots of people considering it and doing it.

I think it's called "The Bridge"? It was on YouTube when I watched it years ago, dunno if it's still there. Maybe someone else will find it. But heads up, it's not exactly a fun watch.

So, now you just need to jump from the net after it catches you? That does not seem like much of a barrier.

Yes, reducing access to methods reduces overall suicide rates and people prevented from suicide on the Golden Gate have historically gone on to live.

Holy shit, 6m down onto inflexible steel mesh. For reference, a 5 meter diving platform is significantly higher than a normal American high dive. That would really fucking hurt. But it would save your life.

Well, there goes my vacation plans this year.

Took a century near enough, didn't it?

Does the bay bridge have nets too?

Can't they just jump off the net?

... sure hope the contractor doesn't install razor-sharp steel net by mistake to spaghettify (french fry cut?) anything falling on it ...

Unpopular opinion: This is a complete waste of taxpayer money that could've gone towards any number of issues that actually cause people to want to kill themselves.

“Had the net been there, I would have been stopped by the police and gotten the help I needed immediately and never broken my back…"

This logic doesn't track for me. How would a new have led to police intervention and help? Or, am I now realizing they mean after the jump and landing in the net, then there would be police? But it's phrased poorly. The net would stop the death, not police. What a crappy sentence. I truly can't tell.

installs nets to stop suicides

Or at least delay them

all they did was add a halfway point

Permanently Deleted

What's the point? Someone who wants to kill themselves will probably find another way. It's not like there's a shortage of ways to commit suicide. I could literally list 1000 ways to do it in this comment but I'm too lazy.

"Oh man, there's a net over the bridge, I guess I'm not killing myself now. Oh well." — Someone living on an 8th floor.

Go for the root cause and attack the mental health issues...

Thanks for charging $120 per resident to build a mega hammock for homeless 👍

Complete waste of public funds.