It turns out, those bollards aren't actually bollards any more than paint is a protected bike lane.
Lots of people joked about how if we just called slow streets Sex Work Slow Streets they'd all get traffic protections, but unfortunately that's not even true, as these Capp street bollards are just pool noodles. From the article:
Emergency vehicles like fire trucks are able to drive over the new bollards and collapse them, and the city can later replace the pins that hold them in place.
No need to stop the car, cut the lock, pull the pin -- just "ramming speed"!
This appears to be the product in use. They are about $250 each, and have a single 3/8" steel pin holding them upright. The page does not say how much force it takes to snap that pin, but it does say they are rated for "up to" 10 miles an hour, and I saw some customer comments elsewhere that said, "all you need to do is run into them slowly and nudge them a few times and the pins break."
What's worse than security theatre? Traffic safety theatre. These aren't bollards, they are just very expensive powder-coated pool noodles. Just like those flattened pool noodles you see "protecting" bike lanes all over town, lying flat like a chewed-up paper straw before your ice has even melted. The ones whose first priority is "whatever happens, don't scratch the paint on a car." All other priorities secondary, crew expendable.
Unlike Jef's constant refrain of "the bike that did this must have been going really fast", I'll bet a sufficiently horny meth enthusiast could knock one down without a vehicle.
I assume that the World Bollard Association is not pleased with this malarky.
Update:
The city has spent a quarter million dollars on these bollards (not actually bollards) so far.
The Air Force's Chief of AI Test and Operations said "it killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective."
The posts are held upright with pins, but already, several of the padlocks keeping the pins in place have been removed.