What's wrong with this picture? (Pool lane lines)

Thank you both for replying! It's a small town so the progression is pretty steep. A few local staff (that I spoke with) > city parks director (which is vacant right now) > city council member responsible for that area.

I was trying to think of what to say to a non-swimmer that would illustrate why the lane lines were unacceptable. To a non-swimmer, the picture doesn't look that bad, after all you can just swim around the curves! I eventually emailed the note below. If you think of anything I missed, please let me know since I'll be following up.

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It's difficult to be completely aware of your environment when swimming. Your hearing is muffled, and your vision is often focused either straight down to the bottom of the pool (crawl) or up to the sky (backstroke), with brief glimpses to the side to breath. Properly installed lane lines reduce waves from other swimmers, which helps you breath in air instead of water, help keep people from plowing into each other, and help avoid hitting the wall headfirst while doing backstroke. (The red buoys indicate you're getting close to the wall.) Even for good swimmers, it's easy to get disoriented in the water.

Lane dividers that are too wide or not straight are a safety issue. It's easy to do a turn and accidentally push of the wall at an angle, and coming up under or between two lines would be very startling. After a turn is also when you most feel the need to draw a breath and not a good time to be entrapped between two lane lines. It's also super painful to hit a lane line with your hand or foot while pulling or kicking.

So, lane lines are needed for lap swimming, and they need to be reasonably straight, and single lines rather than double.

Thank you both for replying! It's a small town so the progression is pretty steep. A few local staff (that I spoke with) > city parks director (which is vacant right now) > city council member responsible for that area.

I was trying to think of what to say to a non-swimmer that would illustrate why the lane lines were unacceptable. To a non-swimmer, the picture doesn't look that bad, after all you can just swim around the curves! I eventually emailed the note below. If you think of anything I missed, please let me know since I'll be following up.

*******

It's difficult to be completely aware of your environment when swimming. Your hearing is muffled, and your vision is often focused either straight down to the bottom of the pool (crawl) or up to the sky (backstroke), with brief glimpses to the side to breath. Properly installed lane lines reduce waves from other swimmers, which helps you breath in air instead of water, help keep people from plowing into each other, and help avoid hitting the wall headfirst while doing backstroke. (The red buoys indicate you're getting close to the wall.) Even for good swimmers, it's easy to get disoriented in the water.

Lane dividers that are too wide or not straight are a safety issue. It's easy to do a turn and accidentally push of the wall at an angle, and coming up under or between two lines would be very startling. After a turn is also when you most feel the need to draw a breath and not a good time to be entrapped between two lane lines. It's also super painful to hit a lane line with your hand or foot while pulling or kicking.

So, lane lines are needed for lap swimming, and they need to be reasonably straight, and single lines rather than double.

Actually, imo, doubled up should not present much of an issue as long as they are TIGHT. Loose ones are the ones that will bite you. And it doesn’t take that much effort to wrench the ones that have been moved over from the open area. However, doubling them up will narrow the overall width by approximately 8-12 inches (2x the diameter assuming 4-6” diameter per lane line). 

Oh that makes sense.  Thank you Jim.

And if you’re sharing the lane with another swimmer that’s significant. And I think we’ll all agree that hitting them with your hand painful, and can cause injury.

Dan

Terrific point.  Thank you.