They’re shaped like that for safety reasons, not because they resemble giant peters. Rounded edges are much less dangerous when one runs (or walks) into one of these things. They have the similar structures out in front of the TVA complex in Chattanooga to prevent vehicles from driving up the sidewalk in front of the building.
There you going being all serious and everything and throwing a wetblanket on stuff.........you’re no fun .....LOLOL!!!
Of course you're right. From the standpoint of functionality and design-to-purpose, it's entirely appropriate. To design it differently would be to substitute a political / social parameter for the purely functional one.
The same people who object to this sort of thing will also object to things like fire hoses using the same 'cultural' criteria while ignoring physics.
If someone can design a more efficient means by which water can be put on a fire than a firehose, I guarantee you that you will have a thousand fire chiefs knocking on your door tomorrow morning, wanting to know more about such a revolutionary design that will help them to protect people better.
Until then, fire departments the world over will use the most efficient design, which some people with WAY too much time on their hands will object to because "it's a phallic symbol".
Another triumph of intelligent design!