Safe Speed Forums

Quietens or deadens noise? What are they made out of where you live? I can hear 'em, no problem. The nearest one is of the most pointless variety - a strip of raised cobbles that could probably be driven over at twice the limit. It's so low it's only function appears to be that of making a noise to get the driver to slow down. Since this is in a well lit residential cul-de-sac about a hundred yards from an obvious dead end usually filled with parked cars I'm at a loss to say who'd need it. What I can say is that it really gets on my thrupenny bits in the summer when we have the windows open at night and can hear every car that enters and leaves the cul-de-sac. If we were light sleepers it would be intrusive, but since we're not we can live with it, pointless and ineffective though it is.

It was much worse where I used to live in Guildford. A local rat run that our house backed on to had a series of regular humps installed. Admittedly there was a problem (IMO) with local boy racers hurtling up and down that road late at night, but all the speed bumps did was to stop them playing their Grand prix games and make 'em start playing rally cross games instead. I doubt that their speeds were reduced as many of them seemed to be activley trying to get airborne off the humps. Very noisy, and instrusive even by my standards.

There is at least one instance that I've heard of where the noise levels have been proved to be excessive. I'll have to see if I can find articles about this, but a guy had complained about the traffic noise created by a hump outside his house, had white coated techy types in to actually measure it so he could tell the council how bad it was in decibels rather than in his opinion. His complaints were ignored, and I think he eventually was so desperate he ripped it up himself with a JCB.

See above. Boy racers are not deterred by humps. At best they simply go race on a hump free road, at worst they treat humps and other so called traffic calming systems as challenges to be driven through in the sortest possible time. If we were boy racers we wouldn't be bitching about the damn things.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

My son lives on the A173, on a village High street and he said it is 100 times worse since the humps were installed! The local chavs now compete to see who has the fastest Nova/Corsa/106/Saxo etc. (complete with bean tin exhausts), between the humps.

In 1st gear!


(Unfortunately, he lives within the humps and his house is un-saleable!)

My mother's road has speed bumps and general concensus .... they are too high and now half of these humps are worn - pot holed and even more dangerous.

The humps will be replaced "over their dead bodies"



The ones near my Ma damage your car at unregistered speed.

As proud Papa - took my youngest to visit her doting Grandma the other week. Transco had dug up the pavement ... so we (self, my Ma and our three youngest - boys aged 4 and 6 plus baby in pram) had to walk along the road for a very short distance on the way to the toddler's play park nearby. The base of pram got caught on the damned hump ... much to the amusement off my baby daughter ... we had to lift her pram over it Now if that's not dangerous ... do not know what is Nearly did my back in!



No they do not want them in their street. My parents and their pals are campaigning to have the ones on their road removed. Property values have only increased on the "boom" and the "bust" is now starting. Negative equity 'ere we come again!

They do not deaden noise.... we certainly heard the bumps from slow moving traffic crawling over them. My parents say the area has now become a haven for malingering teenagers who congregate sharing their fags and being a general noisy pain (even though these are basically nice kids from good homes)

And if someone wants to break into your home and nick your stuff.... they will do so whether or not there is a speed hump. More to point ... BiB will be delayed on its way to cop them at it ... as will the ambulance as these scrotes may deck you one



Lefty? it is the lefty muesli munching car hatin' wallies in general who want the pesky things.

Boy racer? Moi?

I respect me wheels! Humps.. As Gatsobait points out .. real boy racers see these as a challenge to emulate scenes from "Bullitt" and "Streets of San Francisco!"

No they are not!! Humps are here to be got rid of and fast.
Those of us who have a vote are determined to make traffic issues a subject for the upcoming election. Stupid practices such as the installation of road humps are nothing more than a waste of our taxes it has got to stop!!

When common sense has returned to the traffic planners and the Highways Agency (could be a while yet) we will have sensible safe systems of control that include real policemen dealing with the idiots (boy racers in speed kills parlance).It is the few boy racers who are advanced by the traffic calming installers as the reason the majority of us have to negotiate these ridiculous constructions.
When is someone going to do the obvious and take these fools (the boy racers) off the roads. Progressive punishment of the idiots, culminating with the crushing of their cars if they persist, is what we need. We do not require the persecution of the bulk of the driving public to resolve a discrete problem called boy racers.
RJ

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Too much of our money is being wasted on supposed road safety improvements that are actually making driving more dangerous.

Here we go, loads on Google so take your pick. Most relevant is the second BBC one, which among other things said:

Seems to be as much from the HGV air brakes as from the regular thumping of the vehicles going over the bump. Also worth noting that the bump has since been replaced with another of a different design and similar cost that makes much less noise. You have to wonder why the feckless morons at the council didn't install one of those in the first place.

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

I'm afraid I am one of those "hoons" that take humps and "calming" measures as a challenge. I like to see if I can make it through the "calming measure" without reducing my speed (at or under the speed limit!).

Over here most humps taper down at the edges so you can place the left two wheels into the gutter and give the steering wheel a gentle flick right as you touch the hump and in most cases smoothly continue on at the same speed.

Chicanes are my favourite as they are a real challenge to your car control. Some of them are fairly tight "single lane" types and I can usually get through with only a slight drop in speed.

I hate all "calming measures" with a passion and the only way I find I can tolerate them is to see if I can render them useless. My apologies to the residents but it's either a clear road and a constant rate of speed or calming measures and braking followed by acceleration.

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Ross

Yes I'm a hoon, but only on the track!!!!

I like your style M3R, but there's an easier way. Use rental cars. Its a known fact that you can take speed humps however fast you like in a rental because (and this is a subtle technical point) the car isn't yours.

This is also the reason why rental cars are the fastest in the world, can be held at higher revs for far longer, and will fit through almost any gap, no matter how small. It is perhaps their unique ability to deal with 5th gear to 1st downshifts at 70 mph that is my favourite feature.

The facility that makes this phonemenal performance and agility possible is popularly known as "full insurance."

Aren't you the bloke who was whining about having his license revoked? Looks like it was a a good call by the DVLA to me!

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I stole this .sig

See most people here are against speed bumps, this is understandable as they are a nightmare to drive over.

But the majority of people want their streets to have less trafic. Of course not in this forum, as it is the "want to go faster forum" but in the real world people want them on THEIR street, even if they dont want them anywhere else.

I think everyone will be getting real stressed out if someone (me) doesnt make this point, because if you only read other posts here, you would wonder why the councils keep putting more and more in.

Yes of course when cars go over them it makes noise, but the point is cars dont go over them, they go around and use the high street, and not your back double. No cars hurtling through your street, is pleasent, quiet, safe, and does a thing or two for your property value.

Would you have cars speeding through a golf couse, it wouldnt be much fun for the golfers, same sort of idea. No cars is ,tranquility, peace, raise the neighbourhood.

Hopefully to the point where your license is revoked, like your brother's.

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I stole this .sig

I'm not sure that this is true - I certainly wouldn't want them on my street, they would destroy my car in days (I'm on my 5th front-splitter at the moment, due to over-sized humps, and my car hasn't been lowered after purchase, it's as it came from the manufacturer). If I wanted traffic to slow down on my street, I'd campaign for a method of doing so that doesn't destroy people's vehicles.

Plenty of humps will cause my splitter to scrape at < 5mph unless I take them with full lock applied, normally meaning I end up using both lanes of the road. If I have 3 others in the car, virtually every hump will cause a scrape no matter what I do, hence all the splitters I've been through.

I can't see how any traffic calming measure which damages another's property can possibly be considered in any way a good idea. Saying it's my fault because I bought the car I now drive will result in me screaming very loudly and my head exploding - it's tantamount to saying a burglary victim is at fault for having nice things in their house...

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Carl Prescott

Which is fair enough, except when the people involved live on a street which is also an established route for through-traffic, and where the next alternative route for this traffic would involve a lengthy detour. Sometimes you just have to accept that traffic WILL pass by your front door because of the location you live in, and that it's utterly selfish to try imposing restrictions on the behaviour of that traffic simply because you don't like it.

Thing is, a recurring theme here and elsewhere in this type of discussion seems to be "we live in a cul-de-sac/other residential street with little or no through traffic to speak of, yet the council still felt it necessary to install Everest-like speedhumps/pinch points so narrow you can barely get a bike through and which prevent delivery vans from getting anywhere near our front door/other traffic calming measures which were entirely unnecessary". So yes, there may very well be examples of roads where traffic calming/reduction schemes ARE necessary and welcomed by the locals, but I suspect for every such scheme there'll be an equivalent example of a scheme that was badly thought out, badly implemented, and apparently exists only because the local council has a policy of installing such schemes when and wherever possible irrespective of any real need for them.




Well, I for one would be bloody annoyed if the local council decided to install any form of calming scheme on MY street, because quite simply it doesn't need one.




Except when your "back double" IS the main throughfare for that area. See, you're looking at it from the point of view of someone who actually does live on a quiet residential back street used as a rat run, but that's only one tiny part of the entire picture - too many calming schemes are applied to main routes where drivers have no choice but to use them.

And in your version of the world, what happens when the introduction of calming schemes forces a certain percentage of rat-runners back onto the main road, raising the congestion levels and reducing traffic speeds there, such that even with the calming schemes in place the rat runs then end up being just as desirable as they were before?




Conversely, having a home where road access is limited to vehicles below a certain width/height (thus ruling out its purchase by anyone with a large car, or who is a frequent user of home delivery services), also does a thing or two for your property value, only in the other direction... Bad enough when new houses are built with shoebox-sized garages barely large enough to house a Smart car.




No it isn't. Preventing people from driving along the road adjacent to your property is the same sort of idea as preventing people from driving around the car park adjacent to the golf course clubhouse. Preventing someone from driving across a golf course is more like preventing someone from driving across your garden, and I don't think you'll find many people here in favour of allowing that...

There are some humps which cause the front end of my car to scrape the road surface at 10-15mph, which seems utterly ludicrous given that

a) these humps are installed on roads subject to a 30mph limit, where the risk of pedestrian-vehicle conflict is no greater than on other 30mph residential roads which haven't been similarly humped to death

and

b) the car I drive isn't even remotely exotic (it's rather popular with minicab drivers and traffic police, which should be a big enough hint as to what it is )


Then there are the humps which, whilst low enough not to cause any risk of scraping, present a vertical face rather than a rounded/ramped incline - one of my local Tesco carparks has one of these, and whilst it does a bloody good job of slowing cars down, it also sounds like it's doing a bloody good job of damaging tyres and suspensions...

Mind you, after I had the front bushes replaced, it made an excellent test to see if the garage had done a decent job - on all other bumps and potholes, the worn bushes would only knock sometimes, on this speedhump they'd knock every single time, regardless of speed, angle of approach, car loading etc. Soon as I picked the car up from the garage I went straight down to Tesco... utter silence from the suspension, making the loud thump as the front tyres came into contact with the vertical wall of bricks seem even louder than usual

Indeed .. especially if you are a call to a domestic (One of our lads was nearly too late the other night!)



I do not want them on my street. I do not see why they are considered necessary on a cul-de-sac either. Chicanes too- are very badly engineered - too. Too narrow for an ambulance to negotiate ... Lives can be lost as a result!



Think if you actually looked at when they put these in .. the work usually occurs in the month of March. This is because,--- like myself, the Mad Doc, the rest of the BiBs, medics and teachers in this family (who operarate at more senior levels), -- they are using up the budget in order to qualify for the full quota instead of an imprest or top-up ... You cannot carry over unspent budget into the next fiscal year Does not work like a business which retains profits and savings.... So .. has nothing to do with safety or anthing else and much more to do with spending up the "unspent"

quote="closet speeder"]
Yes of course when cars go over them it makes noise, but the point is cars dont go over them, they go around and use the high street, and not your back double. No cars hurtling through your street, is pleasent, quiet, safe, and does a thing or two for your property value.[/quote]

Value of property has nothing to do with spped humps and more to do with a demand exceeding a supply in certain areas such as the South East - where I think you say you live ...




Um .. we have people with automated trolleys and buggies speeding around our golf course....

basingwerk,

You seem to be missing something here, where did I say I was exceeding the speed limit. In fact what I said was
So please tell me why I am even remotely likely to lose my licence. Are you suggesting that in a 30mph speed limit I should be booked for doing 30mph over a speed hump or through a chicane? Where in the law does it say that I am doing anything illegal?

BTW I have lost my licence for accumulated points once but all that meant to me was I had to drive without one. I have ZERO respect for a law that books me for doing 3mph over the limit and I will not stop driving because of it. Yes, that makes me a criminal and I do not care because the law is an ass.

I am NOT a dangerous or careless driver. I drive at a appropriate speed for the conditions which means I regularly drive well below the speed limit. But it also means I regularly drive over the limit as well. I drive to the conditions, not some arbitrary limit imposed by some revenue raising moron with no idea how to improve road safety.

Damn, you got me. I wasn’t going to respond to your posts but I enjoyed writing this and although it won’t upset you I enjoy imagining it does.

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Ross

Yes I'm a hoon, but only on the track!!!!

You're cool; my work is done; everybody is happy!

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I stole this .sig

basingwerk,

It appears that someone has refitted your humour gland.

Now if only someone could replace your intelligence gland so we could have a measured debate.

Damn, I did it again.....

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Ross

Yes I'm a hoon, but only on the track!!!!

Not so popular with the locals......

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Speed camera policy Kills

I am reading a lot of posts about how speed bumps make annoyingh noise, well......

I lived right next to a hump, and the noise certainly never bothered me.

Truck drivers have the good sense to avoid or drive slowly over them, where I lived and............

When cars drive over them I find far from anoying noise, the thump thump is most satisfying, like coins dropping in my money box.

When they first put them in, and people were still using my street, I would go to sleep at night, with amazing ease, like white noise to a baby. Sometimes if I was lucky someone would hit one hard, just as I was dropping off, that would give me a little chuckle, and sweet dreams all night.

Good things allways come to an end, and soon cars stopped using that road as a short cut, but with any luck I can get something on my new street, to help me get to sleep.

Congratulations!

You win first prize in this week's mindless prejudice competition.

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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