Designing a speed hump

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Sun 10 Jan 2010 10:00
Designing a speed hump - L'escargot
Designing a speed hump is not as simple as you might imagine. tinyurl.com/ye2a3go
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Sun 10 Jan 2010 10:06
Designing a speed hump - Armitage Shanks {p}
However they are designed nothing can alter the fact that they have, recently, been responsible for disabling a number of snow plows which have hit them. The bumps have been hidden in 6 inches of snow, I guess, and have proved stronger than the plow blade which has been damaged.
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Sun 10 Jan 2010 10:27
Designing a speed hump - slowdown avenue
they could build sinusoidal speed humps. but they would cost more to build and maintain. want we need to do , is when then council , display their intention to install humps . they tend to follow a guide line of 70 mm high, you have to write in to object to that height ,suggest the build to 65mm or 60mm. this helps traffic flow at a more even speed .and costs less
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Sun 10 Jan 2010 12:03
Designing a speed hump - Andy P
Maybe what they need is some kind of speed-sensitive speed hump that only appears when someone approaches it too fast. It could also rise in proportion to the speed - a few miles over and you get a small reminder. Too fast and you take off :-) Emergency services could have transmitters to ensure it stays down when necessary.

Probably too expensive and difficult to design reliably.
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Sun 10 Jan 2010 14:59
Designing a speed hump - sandy56
I have read of a hydraulic speed hump. This device would respond according to the speed you traversed it.
Go to fast and it would be a sharp bump!
go at the recommended sped and you felt hardly anything.

I thought it was a great idea but was probably too expensive.
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Mon 11 Jan 2010 08:38
Designing a speed hump - Reentrant
I have read of a hydraulic speed hump. This device would respond according to the
speed you traversed it.


Yes I remember seeing that years ago. It was a sprung inflatable "bag" with the vent sized to fully deflate if driven over up to the speed limit but not if going faster. You simply changed the vent hole size to match the speed limit.

As you say probably too expensive, and also easy to vandalize.
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Sun 10 Jan 2010 14:56
Designing a speed hump - L'escargot
........... want we need to do is when then council display their intention to install humps
. they tend to follow a guide line of 70 mm high you have to
write in to object to that height suggest the build to 65mm or 60mm. this
helps traffic flow at a more even speed .and costs less


Or petition the PM online.
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Sun 10 Jan 2010 15:14
Designing a speed hump - David Horn
I cannot think of a single online petition to the PM that has had anything remotely close to the desired outcome.
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Sun 10 Jan 2010 21:24
Designing a speed hump - Number_Cruncher
The paper is using a fairly simplistic technique to assess the severity of the bump - they're simply looking at the maximum acceleration. I would really have expected some measure like the "vibration dose value" to have been calculated - although, of course, calculating the VDV is a lot more involved than simply reading off the maximum acceleration from a graph.

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Sun 10 Jan 2010 21:35
Designing a speed hump - Nsar
To avoid the snow plough problem, why not speed ditches?
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Sun 10 Jan 2010 22:00
Designing a speed hump - scouseford
Nsar

Your idea is a good one and I have thought it myself in the past but humps are, in the main, successful speed controls and less damaging if vehicles do actually slow down as they drive over them. Most opponents of humps seem to be drivers who refuse to slow down and then complain about damage to their vehicles.

On balance I think that slow progress over a hump would probably be less damaging (or even damage free) than over a ditch.

The purpose of humps (or ditches) is to slow vehicles down in the interests of road safety. Most opponents of them refuse to accept that it is necessary to enforce extra speed restrictions in vulnerable circumstances.

I accept that there are issues with emergency vehicles and traffic calming but it surely can't be good practice to leave dangerous road areas free of impediments on the basis that once every 3/4/5 years a fire engine or ambulance 'might' need to gain access.

Or is it?
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Sun 10 Jan 2010 22:20
Designing a speed hump - slowdown avenue
i have read a lot on this subject and have come to the conclusion that 65mm high humps instead of 75 mm high. would slow the trafic and allow a more even flow.
the higher the hump , the slower the speed going over, but producing higher speeds inbetween
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Mon 11 Jan 2010 07:39
Designing a speed hump - grumpyscot
Why have speed bumps at all? These chicane type, and narrowed "entry gates" are successfull and don't annoy snowploughs, fire trucks, or ambulances.

In our neighbourhood, the council refsued speed humps - our soltion - get every alternate car to park on alternate sides of the street, thereby creating a constant chicane. This has slowed things right down to a reasonable level.
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