Mine swing out, as a pair. I put the fence up to contain the kids, and it is the best thing for your peace of mind. There has never been an issue with the gates, but a kid broke his arms climbing over the fence...nasty..trying to catch a frog. Both wrist, 2 places on each arm! If they are wrought iron, I suggest that when they start screeching, you just let them. I know when someone has opened the gates and can get they cruise in at 2am, but that is another story. I have had one bike stolen since we installed fence and gate...very ballsy with 2 dogs in the yard! Guy climbed fence, threw bike over and jumped after it. But in 20 years, that has been it. I don't have any sensors, but when they are itty bitty they arn't outside alone anyway. I love the gates...best of all it forces people to come to my front door, where I can see who they are before they are at my back door! Like any driveway, children need to be watched and watching, but the gates make it a lot safer.

If there is room for a fence, there is room for a slider. As for the detection, you can get multiple levels of protection. You can have a beam break (where you intercept a beam) to cause the action to stop, or a motion sensor (not recommended) that would stop the action at the behest of a motion detector. Or you could build a soccer goal post type structure and install an overhead rolling door (like my buddy did). The detection works. My friend's install even has a pressure sensor on the bottom of the door that will lift it in the event of too much resistance from the door.

This is similar to my situation on an alley, but no room for swing gates only slider. What did you come up with???

We bought a house that had a swinging electric gate and lived there for four years with small children. There was no button to open it from the outside so we had to use the garage opener button to open it. So the kids couldn't open or close it without an adult around anyway. Also, ours was wrought iron and you could see through it, so if my husband or I drove up, we could always see if the kids were near. Ours had the infrared sensors to make sure they wouldn't close on a car or if someone was walking through while it was closing, but I don't think we every used them and the way our gate was set up, I never felt it was a safety hazard. In fact, the safety benefits were big - no more balls rolling out the driveway into the road, etc.

Any idea what this cost? Sounds like it was already there when you bought the home