It's not love, it's littering: NPS asks tourists to stop with the locks

[Hubber]

In Paris, they have modified most of the bridges over the Seine so locks cannot be attached anymore (Pont des Arts was the most famous spot for them, and now has plexiglass sides). Nevertheless, determined tourists manage to find anything within spitting distance of the river – and sometimes far from it – to attach their stupid locks. At a certain point, tour guides pushed it as a centuries-old tradition, but as I recall it is thought to have originated somewhere touristy in eastern Europe about 20 years ago (don’t quote me on that).

In Paris, it reached the point where the city claimed the weight of the locks posed a safety problem for the bridges, and the keys discarded into the river created a pollution problem for the river. Given how many humans the Pont des Arts can support, the safety factors that go into bridge designs (I’m an engineer, though not a civil one), and how polluted the river was at the time of the ban (it is still polluted, but less so, and they hope to have Olympic events in it next year), I don’t know how accurate those claims are, but from an aesthetic point of view I am happy the locks are mostly gone. Though as an uncivil engineer, I’m used to people dismissing my point of view on aesthetics.

[GagHalfrunt]

Most Ljubavi

[Shuck]

If there’s a shop doing that at the Grand Canyon, someone needs to come down on them like a ton of bricks discarded locks.

[anon33176345]

Wedding venues, etc, etc, could monetise it

Love-Lock Tree at Beaulieu

There are ugly versions too

Love Lock Trees | Steel structures to hold and display padlocks

[robertmckenna]

@atteSmythe

Then at night, they reclaim their locks

Like the caged birds they sell at some temples that you pay to free which come right back to eat and are sold the next… hour actually.

[anon73430903]

@jlw

Condors are curious animals and much like a small child will investigate strange things they come across with their mouths. Condors love shiny things. They will spot a coin, a wrapper, or a shiny piece of metal, like a key from a padlock that has been tossed into the canyon and eat it. Condors are not meant to digest metal and many times cannot pass these objects. The X-ray image on this post is of the crop of a condor. You can see coins lodged in the digestive tract of the bird. This bird had to be operated on to clear the obstructions. If a condor ingests too many objects like this, it could die.

Just another reason why love locks are shitty. I already knew about the galvanic corrosion on metal bridges, and this is far worse.

[anon87143080]

While the bridge could take the weight, individual railing sections could not and became distorted or broken. That is the hazard.

Paris Discovers Too Much Love Can Be A Bad Thing

[Flossaluzitarin]

Hopefully they’ll cast locks and keys out of sugar or such. Glitter too?

[Flossaluzitarin]

Careful as you walk up and down the cliff, I hear there’s a property of the Canyon wall that makes it hazardous?

[ElQuesero]

That’s pretty funny, not sure if it’s still pissing in the well, but it’s less bad.

[knoxblox]

Oh, yes. The footpaths are often narrow and steep, according to a former Sunday School teacher of mine who visited, but may or may not have been exaggerating.

[FuckThisTimeLine]

The takeaway, performative “love” is littering, uncivilized, wasteful and environmentally destructive. Who care about how you show your “love” to the world if you will just break up few months later after your Instagram spectacle.

All this padlock, scribbling to historical sites…all the stupid tourist couples can think up on the spur of the moment need to go away. At some point, the local may need to require visitors to be single only.

[gatto]

@FuckThisTimeLine

At some point, the local may need to require visitors to be single only.

finally. something i qualify for.

[ficuswhisperer]

@Chipsa

A designated love lock fence with a deposit spot for the key seems like a great idea for a bunch of these places where they locked are commonly placed.

Or maybe use combination locks? /s

[knoxblox]

If you can unlock it, you can dissolve the relationship. /s

[ficuswhisperer]

Maybe there should be signs saying every time a park ranger has to bolt cutter a lock, the corresponding relationship is summarily severed. Or every time a condor ingests a key, a relative dies. Just use the superstition against them.