My solution to the Vista Bridge suicide problem.

Yet another unfortunate suicide off Portland's Vista Bridge, followed by continued discussions about how to prevent it, including specifically, barriers -- it seems like a story that keeps repeating itself a few times every year.  Barriers are problematic in two ways: Cost and visibility.  I think there's a better way, though.

1" ~ 1.5" metal spike strips.

It may sound flippant, but there's some psychology at work, here.  As Johnny Mandel wrote, "suicide is painless", or as I suspect the meaning is, "suicide is pain less".  The mindset behind suicide is that it ends suffering; the chosen means to an end is almost always limited in pain.

So what if, in the act of committing suicide, you had to endure severe physical pain, as in, multiple sharp stabs?

Yes, I know that if someone is committed to suicide, there isn't much in the way of stopping them.  But, let's say you bring in metal spike strips onto the top surface of the guard rails that are already conducive to standing / sitting on top, with its wide face?  If you upgrade the bridge to meet ADA (technically speaking, ANSI A117.1) you'd introduce a height-appropriate handrail that would prevent accidental injuries (though you couldn't stop a stupid person from harming themself).  Now you have a layer of tremendous physical pain that one must endure, and with its sudden infliction, the natural human response is to recoil and reject it.

It won't prevent all suicides in Portland -- that's something that requires several layers of intervention -- but I believe that it will prevent people from jumping off Vista Bridge. Because it is relatively modest in physical size and can be coated appropriately, it will naturally blend into the overall form of the historical bridge's design, at least from most perspectives.  Up close, obviously, it will seem distracting, but not many people bother to notice the small details up close.

Again, this is not the be-all solution to suicides.  This is just a proposal specifically for the Vista Bridge with possible application to other bridges of similar size and scope.  In cost, probably half a million to implement fully -- not including the cost to update the handrail for accessibility.

Bad or good idea?