Safe Speed Forums

Are these any help?? Cause more problems than they're worth??

The reason I've raised this, is after today, visiting my dad, I was travelling home on my motorbike when I was going for the gap in the middle of the bumps on a corner but misjudged it and hit the bump, this caused my throttle to open slightly as my body pulled back away from the handle bars.. I ended up losing control and parked with the bike on top of me underneath the rear of a parked car..


I've always been against speedbumps but this has just really angered me and want to know other peoples thoughts / experiences with bumps, ie broken suspension, car struggling on a corner due to hitting a bump etc..

Well they increase polution, increase wear on brakes/suspension thus making vehicles less safe, they increase annoyance levels, they increase noise along a road (why bother changing to third gear?), they damage people's backs, they slow down emergency vehicles, they cause structural damage to nearby buildings, they increase congestion on nearby roads (increasing annoyance again) and they don't even slow people down.

They are good thing because....? Someone? Anyone?

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Andrew.

You want know something really tragic, Wayne? The type of speed hump you describe is called a 'Calming Cushion'!
Quite personally, I would like to bounce the head of the bastard that designed them off one a few times to show them how 'cushiony' they are...

Edited for yet another bloody typo - I'm starting to type like The Barmy Majority...

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Aquila



Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat...

http://www.abd.org.uk/speed_humps.htm

http://www.speedlimit.org.uk/hump.html

Quote from Tom Utley in the Daily Telegraph:


Personally I hate the things even more than speed cameras because you can't avoid them even by driving well below the limit

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

The plastic ones (yellow and black) are the worst of all. Followed closely by block paved ones ....

Does not matter how slowly you go over them - you feel the bump and jostle in the car. If you happen to have a passenger with a bad back or sciatica - (my Dad at the moment) - they tend to feel this all the more.

All that happens for the most part - cars and bicycles return to a more normal speed between the humps and then brake to 5-10mph to negotiate them.

Hardly safety or eco-friendly then

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Does anyone have the figures for the legal height of a speed hump, and also the signing and white line regs.?
Many of the ones around Kendal have the white warning triangles erased by traffic, and nobody has bothered to repaint them!
Many of the signs get vandalised and are never replaced, so does this make them illegal?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

There’s info on the Dft web site here

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Is it permissible to drive around them... If there is a gap between them...

Just in an estate near me... They have a hump on each side of the road, staggered by about 4 feet, and there is a gap down the middle of the road, which I tend to drive through if there's no traffic... Means I don't have to slow from 30 in the 30 zone... Saves on brake wear, saves petrol...

They haven't put signs up for these ones yet, and I was driving up one night about 11pm and I didn't exactly see them, hit one at 30 and scared the s**t out of myself... Checked afterwards, was lucky I didn't do more damage...

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Mike

If you did any damage from hitting a speed bump that's not properly signed and difficult to see you should contact the council and get them to pay for the damage.

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Less Kodak, more Kojak.
In times of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Sudden thought occurs - if the road is roundel-posted at 30 mph, surely you should be able to safely drive it at 30 mph without damaging your vehicle?

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Aquila



Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat...

You'd think.
Actually there's some near me you can do 35-40mph past if you get your aim right. (dead centre of the road)
Have to slow down for the bend though lest there's someone coming the other way.

And I'd only do this to prove that they don't even slow you down...

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Andrew.

Yea, that's what I always think too... It's very rare to get an area with speed humps which are safe at 30... Round here anyway...

Had an occasion on a NSL road, going to a 40, and there were humps on the road, unmarked, we hit them at 40, that again was a scary moment... About a week later, they were signed... So maybe they've built these ones and not bothered putting the signs up, or haven't got them made...

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Mike

isn't that because a lot of the time the roads aren't safe to be driven at 30mph but people insist on driving them at 30mph because "that's the limit"?

Guess so, but, to be honest, 30 in this area is a good speed... It's a perfectly wide road, good visibility, there's a school, but then they should have a 20 limit, or less... It's pretty straight, 30 is a reasonable speed to be doing in it... There are many side roads coming off the main road, and these are all too narrow to do 30, so these should have a 20 limit, or less, but as always, the residents only worry about the main road... I think the real problem was people absolutely flying down it, at 40 or 50... I pulled out infront of someone one day, without having a good look at them, and found myself having to accelerate very briskly to prevent them hitting me... Normally I would have been fine, they were a few hundred yards away, but not this time...

Just had a wee run around the estate there, they have signs up now 'speed humps for 2 miles' so... They must not have had them made or something... Driving over them at 30 causes the suspension to nearly bottom out...

I guess... In this location, they are actually quite a good thing, but I have no recollection of anyone being killed/injured on this road... But if you're behind someone that is really really cautious about them they brake and creep over them, which is totally unnecessary, they are fine at about 20 - 25mph...

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Mike

Friendly comment: NEVER assume the speed of a vehicle in your prospective flight path; ALWAYS assess it. Look twice, or for sufficiently long. Yes people go too fast, but two wrongs don't make a right. Excess (in your eyes) speed of an approaching vehicle could be for any nomber of reasons, many of which are non-chav, and none of which you have the "right" to "adjust".

Yup... I know that now... I just put it down to my inexperience, and its something I'm aware of now, so... It was a good learning experience, even if somewhat scary...

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Mike

Hope I didn't inadvertently rub it in - but I remember you saying you wanted to pick up tips, so I drop in things like that where I can. Certainly not intending to rub it in.

They also cause the increased deterioration of the existing road surface.

speed bumps just require me to drive even faster between them to make up for the lost time