We've all come across those abomination called speed bumps. Some of us take the attitude "not nice but installed because so many people don't know how to drive in residential areas". Others disagree. Some independent thinkers use bulldozers to remove them.
The local ones annoy me. I have to slow to walking pace if I don't want my car to make a loud and worrying banging noise. And then because of my slow speed, some annoying impatient fruitcake behind gets all annoyed and throws his toys out of his pram.
Until last week that is when I discovered how to take them at normal speed. Simple. Take them at an angle. By doing so, the gradient of the hump is effectively reduced, and pairs of wheels no longer hit the bump at the same time, thus spreading and reducing the impact. I can now take them at 20-30 mph i.e. at the speed that is appropriate for the area in the absence of the road hump. The only problem though is that oncoming traffic might be startled - though to date it doesn't seem to trouble the locals. Also this might not be a good idea in slippery conditions, where a skid might be induced. I might add that I keep to the left side of the road, and thus do not threaten oncoming vehicles.
|
Leif, fully understand where you are coming from but, if you stand back from the situation, does the extra 10 secs or so that it took to slow down and accelerate again really that important in the big picture of things?
As for approaching the bumps, the only advice I have been told before is to make sure you are not braking atthe point of impact as the front of your car will be lower under braking?
|
I just drive over them betweeen 0-35mph, the same as if they weren't there.
The suspension rates mean that they are absorbed by the dampers at this speed rather than the car bouncing over them, and me getting joggled. The resistance of the damper is lower, if it's compressed faster, thus, I think the wear and tear is probably not much more than going over them slowly.
If folk go slowly, I overtake them when they grind to a halt, as long as it's safe to do so. If ever I have enough money...
www.jetplant.co.uk/pla1.htm
I go over 76 speed bumps a day going to work and back :o(
|
|
|
BobbyG: I have a 2 mile journey to work with speed humps every 100m. They are steep nasty ones that normally need to be taken at walking pace. I prefer to drive at 20mph rather than a continual stop start with the associated increased fuel use, increased pollution, increased discomfort, and increased brake/clutch wear. There's also a double road constriction that when I cycle I feel endangered crossing due to chicaning cars being fed into my path, but that's another story.
You made an interesting point about braking and bumps.
|
There used to be lots of theories going around about how to evade speed humps on university campuses. One said go at about twice the speed limit - allegedly at over 50 you didn't notice them. For those that don't extend the full width of the road keeping two wheels in the gutter helps.
Another theory said if you can dab the brakes at precisely the moment the front wheels hit the bump, the front of the car will dip and counteract the lift from the bump. Then hit the gas just as the back wheels contact.
I suppose it partly depends on whether you are trying to make things smooth for the occupants or the suspension.
Also all the theories depend on the car's ground clearance being adequate, both normally and when rebounding from a bump. There's no point in successfully straddling the bump only to crash down onto the silencer or cat.
|
|
My local Kwik Fit do great business in replacement springs since the local area has been invaded by speed bumps and people think they can jump them at 30 mph. Peter
|
In my experience (hump right outside house at my previous address) the motoring world divides between those who have to pay for their cars & repairs, and those who don't. Consequently, for company cars, courier vans & lorries, humps don't exist.
Taking them at an angle does help, space permitting. So does not living in residential parts of Milton Keynes where humps with near-vertical brick escarpments are de riguer.
|
But surely taking them at an angle induces a twisting force on the chassis that can't be good for the car or its occupants?
Terry
|
Fair comment Terry - it certainly feels better since you're only lifting one wheel at a time. Hopefully body/chassis stiffness is sufficient to allow the car to cope?
Reminds me of the antics car dealers sometimes get up to displaying their cars on forecourts, ramps on one side and all that malarky.Not sure I'd buy a car that had been stored "twisted" like that.
|
|
|
|
|
Back in the 70's I used to take speed bumps at 30 mph and for a few months this was fine. But then I found the Front Mcpherson struts pushing through the skin on my Mk1 Cortina and hastened its demise. Now I always take them slowly.
Xam
|
|
If you're paying for your own repairs you take them slowly!
|
The "angled approach does work. This also how you "should" drive down a flight of steps(!)
The problem with the angled approach is that it involves facing your car towards hazards (oncoming traffic, parked cars, pedestrians etc).
|
I'm sure I heard somewhere that taking humps at an angle risks knocking your tracking out. Also, for those that take them at full speed, all I can say is try taking the ones outside Mottram church in something with 14" wheels... The trouble I find is that while some humps are nice and sensible and you can take them comfortable at 15-20, some are so high and steep that anything over 5 mph is very unpleasant.
Can someone remind me, what notice do the council have to give for putting humps in? I live in a cul-de-sac, and the road we exit on to is going to have humps installed. They told people living on the road and on some surrounding roads, but they didn't tell us and although they claim to have put notices up I've not seen any. I've tried contacting the council but have been told that it's tough, they are going ahead and the only objections they have had are from people that aren't directly affected so they are ignoring them. Is there anything I can do? The council don't help their case by saying in one paragraph of their reply that they are installing humps to control speeds on the road, then going on to say they have monitored the road and there isn't a speeding problem!
|
Steve,
Ask the council where the notices were posted then knock on a few doors near where they were supposed to have been placed. If nobody confirms they were there, approach local planning department and ask for a copy of the specification for posting notices and, to save time, details of the Local Government Ombudsman Service. If they haven't followed the appropriate regs, no speed humps.
Ditto, ask them for copies of the guidelines on placement of humps. Given the comment in their letter, they may be in breach anyway.
|
Those blasted speed humps have ruined my short cut onto the A12.
However, having a large Omega makes the problem a little easier, I drive at 20-30 over the humps balancing each wheel on the side of each hump. When u hit it right they are barely noticeable.
For those that extend across the road there is no option but to slow down but where possible stick the left wheels in the gutter.
When this is unavoidable slow right down but speed up a touch just before impact.
|
|
|
Ask the council where the notices were posted
I have done, no reply as yet. (They replied to my other messages far quicker than they have this last one....)
I'd especially like to hear they reply to my point that we have no option but to use the road in question to access the street while other roads not so affected were consulted... Their comment that "it is not possible to consult every person who may drive along (the road in quesion)" strikes me as unhelpful at the least.
|
Artful Dodger, as you lived next to a hump, I would be curious to know what intrusions with noise/vibration they make into your home. Do they rattle pictures, or make you jump? Can you feel vibration through the floor etc....?
Daz, I am disappointed in my Omega over humps, I used to have an N-reg Mazda 626, it was nowhere near so good a car, but was mucg softer over humps at any speed. I reckon I'll try another type of tyre this time, a lower speed rating 'touring tyre' rather than the high performance ones I have and probably dont need.
|
Leicester City Council started installing humps in earnest about 11 years ago. Amusingly, they began with a road that ran through the middle of the red light district. ("I wasn't kerb crawling, officer, I was trying not to generate sparks like the ones your Fiesta gave off when you hit the humps chasing me.")
At first the humps made quite a difference to traffic speed and the roads were noticeably quieter. As they were installed on more roads they started to have less effect as drivers became hardened to them and didn't have the choice of avoiding the humped roads.
My own road has had humps for several years. This is despite the fact that it has never really been used as a rat run. You can't drive fast along it: when there are cars parked on both sides it's single file anyway. I thought the humps were stupid, even in my days as a fairly determined non-motorist. Their effect really does depend on the vehicle. Taller vehicles such as large vans and my boss's old Discovery bounced a lot. Smallish cars cope with them without too much difficulty. Black cabs just about cope.
The humps that don't fill the whole width of the road (traffic mounds?) can be negotiated by placing a wheel on either side, even in a fairly small car. My driving instructor taught me to do this. You don't notice the hump thing at all if you can do this accurately.
I agree wholeheartedly with Leif's point about chicanes making roads hazardous for cyclists. Features like this are probably my main reason for no longer using my bike as a means of transport.
|
"At first the humps made quite a difference to traffic speed and the roads were noticeably quieter. As they were installed on more roads they started to have less effect as drivers became hardened to them and didn't have the choice of avoiding the humped roads."
This thought occurred to me too. Local humps seem to slow only those who would drive carefully anyway. Others take them as per normal road.
Councils install speed humps in the belief that they calm traffic. This belief comes from gov. funded experiments. I suspect these experiments are studies of an isolated hump - i.e. 1 hump - and the study considers results before and immediately after - i.e. while the hump is still novel. I wonder if any long term real world studies have been done e.g. pick a selection of areas at random and do a statistical analysis of accidents before and 5 years after?
|
|
|
|
J - no problem with vibration - houses were solidly built Edwardian with thick walls. However the noise was bad - especially lorries/dustcart going over at speed.
Especially wearing at four in the morning. Not the sole reason we moved but certainly a contributory factor.
|
|
Not really negotiation in the strictest sense of the word but.. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/3157822.stm
|
And the conclusion to Ian Beesley's speed hump campaign:-
www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/oxfordshire/archive/20...l
Can't find any mention of his trial hearing though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
An obstruction in the road , deliberate or otherwise , constitutes a hazard. Negotiate all hazards with hazard warning lights activated and provide audible warning of your presence to alert others in the vicinity of your intention to manouvre safely and slowly across the hazard. Poorly maintained speed humps are especially dangerous to motorcycles. When wet and covered in diesel and debris they are lethal.
|
Forgot to mention, the early humps in Leicester are made of decorative bricks. These must cost a fortune to maintain because the bricks become dislodged with the effects of thousands of cars negotiating them. The loose bricks are, of course, a hazard. Also, a decorative road surface needs a special kind of manhole cover with the bricks inset in the lid. These very quickly become loose and dangerous.
At some junctions the the humps are actually plateaus: you drive up one side as you approach the junction and then down the other side. This always seemed dangerous to me because it raises the road surface to more or less the same level as the pavement. I'd have thought a car skidding on one of these could easily hit a pedestrian as it wouldn't have to mount the kerb to do so.
Ah well. At least it might deter some of the kerb crawlers.
|
|
|
|
