The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) says high tension cable median barriers are safer than concrete and steel guard rails.
Alysson Storey of Rondeau is fighting to get concrete barriers installed on Hwy 401 from Tilbury to London and Ontario's Minister of Transportation is considering them.
Spokesperson Nick Schirripa says Michigan has installed over 300 miles of cable barriers since 2008 in some places where they're a good fit, but admits there are still opponents to the cable guard rails in Michigan.
Schirripa says they work very well to keep drivers safe on highways and can stop large vehicles like transport trucks and school buses.
"The data shows that they're effective, not only in decreasing the number of crashes or the number of vehicles in a crash, but also significantly decreasing the severity of crashes," says Schirripa.
Schirripa says Wayne State University conducted a study on cable barriers in 2014.
He says a lot of factors go into deciding what barriers are used, like traffic volumes and speed, hills and curves.
You can read the entire study here.
Schirripa says concrete and steel guard rails result in more serious crashes than cable barriers and pinball vehicles back into traffic.
"Take the same 100 crashes and put them at 60 miles an hour into a concrete or steel barrier and put those same 100 crashes into a cable barrier and you're getting less deflection. So, fewer vehicles are bouncing back into traffic, the number of injuries is lower and the number of fatalities and serious injuries is drastically reduced," Schirripa says.
Schirripa says the cable tightness is just enough to stop vehicles from crossing the barrier while preventing them from rebounding back into traffic.
"It would catch it and deflect some of that impact. So, it gives a little bit and cradles the vehicle and then lets it fully decelerate and come back into the shoulder. It's not a sling shot or rubber band effect at all," Schirripa says.