to hate and loathe speed bumps

[uptheamp]

i ran over one earlier and somethine clanked on my car, i hate and loathe them, they ruin cars and no i do not speed over them but just the normal driving over them ten times a day ruins springs and other parts costing loads of money.

I would prefer a speed camera, in fact speed cameras up the whole of the roads with bumps. i do not speed in my car but the bumps are starting to really irk me now.

i expect people will say iabu but i don't think i am, i just think there are other and better ways to slow vehicles. chicanes to slow flow etc. placing massive humps in the middle of the road isn't the way we should be heading [grr]

Uptheamp

Count me in - but maybe hold your fire for a week or two; I've got one or two other ideas up my sleeve.

BTW there is a Parliamentary Select Committee looking at road safety at the moment, so a first step might be to research what they're up to and 'bump' your MP so that when the findings and recommendations come up for debate, he/she knows which side their electoral bread is buttered.

But as I noted someone else has said, all we have to do is to convince everyone in the country to drive sensibly. Simples, really. Maybe start with friends, relations, work colleagues?

But I cannot resist interjecting a basic fact (easily verified with GCSE maths):

If you hit a child at only 20mph, that is equivalent to taking them up to a first-floor balcony (approx), holding them upside down by the legs, and dropping them head first on to the bonnet of your car. Brings it home.

At 40 - twice the speed - the distance is four times as much, i.e. about 5 storeys.

Point made?

YABU, if you kept within the speed limit, it would cause no damage to your cars.

If you go fast enough to damage your car, you are going fast enough to damage a child!

Erm ... I get what you are saying, mamma, but it's not true. I live in an area with masses of speedbumps and I always go over them at 20 or less - but it does damage your car and does make the springs wear out faster.

Going over them at the speed limit doesn't cause immediate damage to your car (unless maybe you drive something very low and not really road-suitable), but it does do long term damage.

yanbu
better to let cars speed and kill kids

It's not an either/or three.

YANBU - I hate them especially the pillow hump types. I am all for reducing speed levels but these are beyond a joke in my area as you could not get passed 20 mph if you tried.

YANBU. Most of the speed bumps are in 20 or 30 zones. If you go over them at that speed you will damage your car. You have to practically stop before you go over them if you drive a small car.

I live on a small cul-de-sac,with a gentle slop as you get to the end and two fairly gentle speed bumps.

Ideal for children learning to skate board, so you get kids in the middle of the road.

"YABU, if you kept within the speed limit, it would cause no damage to your cars."

If only that were true

YANBU

We have loads of them here and I hate them. I have a low car, even creeping over them scrapes along and damages the bottom of my car.

My parents' estate have those road narrowing things where cars alternately have priority over oncoming traffic and they're much nicer and more effective at slowing people down

I recently moved to Australia from London. Virtually no speed bumps to contend with here, absolute bliss!

Those of you who are removing their speed bumps, can you bring them to my road please?
It's supposed to be 30mph, average speed I would guess is 45mph
I literally cannot get my 3 dc safely across the road most days
The council estate round the corner had speed bumps installed, it turned from a boy racer track to a quiet, "safe" road literally overnight

That is completely inaccurate, mamma.

I have quite a low car. I have to go over the bumps at 5-10mph not to cause damage. The speed limit is 30.

freddie - yes, I agree, those work much better. There are some of those near us, and they're good because some have pedestrian crossings on them, so the place where cars have to wait is also an easy place to cross, and because you have to slow down in your car anyway, it feels like a natural place to wait for pedestrians.

I have to go over the bumps at 5-10mph

they are not meant to allow people to continue at the speed limit, they are meant to make people do exactly what they make you do,

we have them through the middle of our village, a route that gets used as a rat run, the limit is 20, but the bumps make slow to between 5 and 10mph,

the bumps were removed, but had to be replaced almost immediately as people are selfish and couldn't control themselves, so sad when adults fail to use common sense and just do what ever suit them.

We only have speed bumps because of the culture of bad driving.

Most people fail before they start as they don't get limit is a limit, not a target.

One road I lived on, the speed bumps were so ridiculously high that ambulances had trouble getting over them at the posted speed limit. It got so bad, that ambulances would often avoid the roads altogether. I often wonder whether the elderly man who lived upstairs from us would still be alive, if his ambulance hadn't been slowed down by the speed bumps,

Chicanes seem to work better ime, and have the added bonus that drivers have to concentrate on their driving more than whether or not they will yank their exhausts off going over bumps.

quote i don't doubt that people need to slow down, there are just better ways as i said in op, like chicanes

chicanes cost massively more to instal and maintain, and are less effective when you have a solitary speeder on a clear road,

I sit in on a lot highway meeting as we(village) are in constant dispute with them,and I sit in on the the parish council, so hear all the reason behind the thinking, basically there is no money, people generally dive like nob ends and they have to try and slow them down.

Hmm.

I can see the cost issue, I don't get how they'd be less effective? You still have to slow down to get through the narrow place, whereas people who like to speed just fly over speed bumps without caring.

It is sad it comes down to a money issue, but I can see why.

anyway the good news is that speed bumps will soon be a thing of the past,

we have one of the first pilot schemes in the country, included in the cover area rural and urban, it's a digitised scheme at the moment,so they are just monitoring patterns at the moment, but they are planning on rolling it out nation wide in the near future,

as you enter our area five parishes and a town, your number plate gets recorded, and your journey monitored, all posts have a digital camera on them,

they did this to be the first test of the average speed cameras to go into urban and rural roads,

so just like the average speed systems that work so well on the motorways we are all going to have them in our local neighbourhoods throughout the country,

bad news for anyone that finds it hard to drive under 30mph.

Ooh! Wow. That's very clever. I'd like to see that.

quoteunquote I would imagine there would be huge opposition to a scheme like that in a lot of areas. Bit Big brother isn't it.

I have a Kia Picanto, and i have to slow right down on the harsh bumps, otherwise it'll fuck my car up, and its only 2 and half years old.

Wish to fuck we could have some down our road, which is used as a rat run by taxi drivers and idiots all day long. Chicanes are crap: they cause tailbacks when there is no need, and rely on drivers to be responsible and considerate and fair, which is by no means a given.

I would imagine there would be huge opposition to a scheme like that in a lot of areas

Yes there will be huge opposition, but they still are going ahead, we(whole community) objected to the test scheme, and it is digitalised so not personal at the moment.

basically it will be the most cost effect way (very cheap to install and to run) of cutting speed everywhere(apart from everyone agreeing to not drive like idiots), also it will not slow down emergency services and best way to make money, so there is very little chance of it not going ahead,

Slow is the new fast, or at least it soon will be, as when this kicks in across the country, many will have to retrain themselves to think of it as a limit rather than they drive five miles fast than, and stay well below, or risk getting lots of points.