Barrier Gates

The ultimate barrier gate.

The BGS-5xx high-volume automatic barrier gate offers a direct drive motor and stainless steel housing, which is durable & rust-resistant in Canadian climates as well as tropical salt-water environments.  These parking barriers gate offers multiple inputs/outputs, open/close speed selection & auto-reverse upon obstruction. Red/green illuminated panels provide additional stop/go guidance to Drivers.  The optional breakaway release arm minimizes damage to the motor and gate in case a vehicle drives into the barrier arm. The lightweight aluminum arm requires no special tools for installation. With slim profiles, this barrier gate system is perfect for narrow spaces and high volume applications.

Barrier Gate Safety Features

Parking BOXX gates will auto rebound in the event that a gate arm comes into contact with a solid object. This required safety feature may be demonstrated by catching the gate arm in your hand to show how quickly the rebound will happened. Generally a gate should not come into contact with a vehicle, unless there is an issue with the loops or loop detector or if the vehicle is attempting to tailgate or closely follow another vehicle out of the parking lot to avoid payment.

On the barrier gate top, there are illuminated panels for red/green lights. The lights remain red until the arm is full open to indicate to the vehicle driver that it is safe to pass. An upgrade to have illuminated arms is also available. We find that our customers who want to attract evening and night drivers like the visibility this provides for their lot. We even had one customer tell us this was better advertising than the much more expensive color sign he was considering purchasing.

The arm is made of a light-weight aluminum that we designed with an internal structure for strength, including withstanding heavy winds, even for our 18’ arm. Our arm is powder coated with white with 3M red reflective strips on both sides of the arm. The 3M technology uses retroreflectivity to maximize visibility because the optic elements are nearly 100% efficient. The night time visibility of the strips is almost 90 degrees and may be visible up to 500 feet.

In addition to the visual safety features, there is also an audible alarm that sounds when a barrier gate arm is going to close.  This alerts anyone standing nearby.

While your barrier gate and traffic lanes should always be designed so that pedestrian traffic is not directed to the path of the barrier gate arm, signage on the gate also indicates provides a visual warning.  Sometimes keeping all pedestrian traffic away isn’t always possible. In such cases, a pedestrian detection sensor may be implemented. Please keep in mind that this will also allow a person to stand in that sensor’s detection zone and allow multiple vehicles to exit the lot. 

Another popular feature is security cameras.  These may help to avoid the likelihood of vandalism or attempts to “game” the system. Parking BOXX offers standard single or dual camera options with optional NVRs to record the security footage for future reference.   

Next, you’ll want to consider how the gate will survive the rigors of human and vehicle interaction. Will the barrier gate break in the RIGHT way. Despite best efforts some parking lot patrons drive into the barrier gate arm.   And, yes, the below is an image of a real driver deciding to driver through an arm.  After this incident, the parking lot decided to change from the steel bolt to the break away bolt.

The engineered break point #1 is the break away bolt.  Your barrier gate arm should be able to survive a low speed impact with minimal damage and cost to repair. Parking BOXX offers this as an option because not all sites have drivers who are quite able to stop in advance of the barrier.  When a driver comes into contact with a barrier gate arm at a high speed, however, chances are decent that the arm will need to be replaced. Sometimes the aluminum will sheer off – and if you or your staff are handy, you may be able to cut off or smooth the edges, re-drill holes and re-use 95% of the arm

For low speed impacts, rather than replacing the full arm, the fix may be as simple as replacing one securing mechanism to allow the arm to hinge outward. Now if you are utilizing this option, be sure that the barrier gate arm will have ample clearance before the arm length reaches pedestrians or oncoming traffic.    See how the break away bolt works below. 

Engineered Break Point #2 comes into play for when you find that you have drivers who attempt to manually open the barrier gate arm by forcing it open. We have customers who have some remote exit lanes so their customers, rather than paying to exit, prefer to muscle their way out. If there is no engineered break point for this scenario, the repairs to the gate may be very costly if the shaft or motor is damaged. Parking BOXX has designed a significantly less costly break point component (under $10) that will break first and minimize damage to the more expensive parts. You should be able to make this fix in minutes.

Whether you are controlling access control for a parking system entry or improving security for your parking lot entrance, the barrier gate arm will restrict vehicle traffic that may enter your lot. When used in conjunction only with RFID access control or AVR vehicle hang tags, only authorized vehicles may access. When used with revenue collection, then paying drivers will also be able to enter and exit the parking lot.

Barrier gates are typically used in conjunction with loop detectors that detect vehicles. Similarly such loop detectors don’t allow a pedestrian to walk up and interact with a machine. Yes, people will walk up to pay for their parking fee, then try to leave later – only to find that their parking ticket is no longer valid because it is now marked as a closed ticket in the parking system.

For lower volume applications, a remote control may be appropriate to open the barrier gate arm. Pushing the button on a fob will open, close or stop the gate arm. In the event of power failure, there is a battery backup option or there is a manual open option. Some sites use a push button station to manually control the barrier gate opens. This is only appropriate when there is a human available to assist with the opening and closing of the barrier gate arm.

Finally some sites utilize a key switch to permanently hold the barrier gate arm in the open or close position. Some examples where we frequently see there are events and the gates are opened at the end of an event. Also when there is one lane of traffic that changes direction (i.e. during the morning it is an entry lane, but in the afternoon it is an exit lane.) Such gates typically have two gates – one for each direction option because the control equipment is placed before the control device.

When barrier gates are installed in parking garages, and there is a ceiling height restriction, a folding arm or articulating arm is used. This will allow an arm to be placed across the lane but when the arm is raised, then it articulates around a fulcrum point. Parking BOXX designed their gate to maximize the height of vehicles that may enter your garage. If you build for 6’8” clearance, the last thing you want is for a barrier gate arm to further restrict that height! See a barrier gate with a folding arm in action!