Pot-hilling

Could you please repeat your advice for driving over speed bumps to reduce tyre damage (which I have read many times in your column but have not kept the printed page) so that I can pass it on to some male drivers of my acquaintance who refuse to believe a woman can know anything worth knowing about driving.

Asked on 6 February 2010 by J.C., via e-mail

Answered by Honest John
Advice for driving over speed cushions ('pot hills'): One wheel over the cushion, one wheel on the flat road. If you try to minimise the hump by straddling the hump’s chamfered edges you wear away
the inner shoulders of your car tyres: damage you would not normally see that could result in a high-speed blowout on the motorway. Be particularly careful of chamfered edges of speed cushions in the snow because they could cause your car to slip sideways into an adjacent parked car, in which case whoever installed the speed cushions would be directly liable. After the frosts, watch out for crumbled edges of speed cushions because these can lacerate the inner shoulders of tyres on one pass.
Similar questions
I read with interest your coverage of damage caused by road humps. Although we have some in towns around here in the New Forest, most of the damage to wheels, tyres and suspension seems to be caused by...
You frequently write about possible damage caused to buildings by road humps. The High Street in Berkhamsted used to be the A41 but was renumbered A4251 when the bypass was opened in 1993, and was then...
I thought to offer my comment as a vibration consultant, before you reply to many more of these types of queries. This will avoid perpetuating a potential error. Whilst agreeing wholeheartedly with potentially...