Speed bumps!

[normspanners]

I'm not sure what to make of speed bumps - I totally agree they are a way of keeping speed down in built up areas, and I'm not sure what could really do the same job, however having seen first hand the distraction they provide (people concentrating more on slowing down/speeding up for them rather than what's going on around them,

The mad thing is if you want a smoother ride over them it is better to speed up !! ask any police man, the straight across ones are a pain with a loaded vehicle so much so that I always approach them at an angle so as to go over them diagonally this saves the vehicle masses of strain and stops the bounce, but this brings with it added dangers .
Then you have to bring the emergency vehicles into the equation and how much stress that puts on drivers and the people inside them trying to do their job whether it be someone tending to a radio etc or a person.

 

[Richard.]

it should be safe for the vehicle and occupants to travel at that speed when clear, without damage to either.

Hi mate. Sorry I don't agree with you on that but that's the fun in debates so all friends here. Just because the speed limit is in place doesn't mean it should be safe to do it. You don't do 60 on every road with a national speed limit sign do you? You drive as fast as the road/conditions allow you to do safely. The speed limit is the legal maximum speed for the road.
I quite agree with you in one respect though and your right it's not fair all motorists have to be forced to slow right down through an area of lots of speed bumps. However the minority has spoilt it for the majority and those that have shot down 20,30 zones do need grinding to a halt before they kill someone. I've had em over take me on our road in the past shooting to work because they can't be bothered to get up ten minutes earlier. They don't belong everywhere and we all think they are a pita at the best of times but in certain places I welcome them. Other measures don't physically slow you down. They catch you out but your still speeding through a village till the endorsement hits your license. A speed bump slows you up there and then and some of these idiots need that.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

There was a report in the papers a couple of years ago about an airport shuttle bus driver who had suffered back injury from speed humps. It was calculated he drove over several thousand per shift.
I vaguely remember one of the Tories pre election promisses, before they came into power after Labour, was to reduce the number of speed humps but have never heard any more ! Found this article confirming my memory - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/mar/08/conservatives.uk

 

[winchman]

I find it safe to remove the strut, local garage has a big spring compressor charges £10 to fit spring to strut as its a 10 minute job.

 

[Richard.]

There was a report in the papers a couple of years ago about an airport shuttle bus driver who had suffered back injury from speed humps. It was calculated he drove over several thousand per shift.
I vaguely remember one of the Tories pre election promisses, before they came into power after Labour, was to reduce the number of speed humps but have never heard any more ! Found this article confirming my memory - https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/mar/08/conservatives.uk

There has been faaaaaaaar more reports of people failing to hit reasonable stopping distances when applying the brakes and killing someone as a result.

 

[normspanners]

Here are some photos of just some out of the latest scrap pile Any one thing obvious ?? apart from the one disco broken in the middle that was caused by spring helpers fitted causing the spring to flex in the wrong place BUT if you do look closely it has more corrosion in the place it snapped

 

[normspanners]

above 60 (emergency vehicles) they pretty much disappear.

Most ambulances / fire engines dont travel at the speed to make them disappear IMO because of the nature of the roads most of the speed bumps are on. As in your pictures.

 

[Rudi McAnichal]

View attachment 120157
It's normally fine to straddle those.

Lots of folk warning of tyre and suspension damage due to straddling those bumps, and suggesting it’s better to have one wheel on top and the other the tarmac.

Does anybody have facts, or is this just a rumour?

 

[normspanners]

I always straddle unless my car trailer is heavily loaded coz it has cost me a jockey wheel before now, or if the bump is straight across I ALWAYS approach diagonal especially with the trailer.

 

[normspanners]

Having MOT'd thousands of cars it is usually the first or last coil of the spring where the spring flexes the most and it loses its coating that allows corrosion or salt in and they snap BUT as said this doesnt usually happen on rally cars where they are subjected to MASSIVE forces it is far more likely for the mounting point to fail

 

[Rudi McAnichal]

Personally, based on the fact I've never had tyre or suspension damage from them, I'd say it's rumour...

Too many rumour-mongers all reading HJ in the Torygraph?

Re spring breakage, I looked at one that my vehicle suffered this summer, and there was a very small (<0.5mm) rusty crater where paint had chipped from the surface, the break had clearly spread out from that point, and the fracture surfaces were like textbook fatigue failure illustrations. So I totally agree with those who have said corrosion is the main culprit.

 

[Noods]

Noodle towers is on a Rat run street where people cut through to avoid traffic lights etc.. after endless complaints from residents the council wrote to us all asking what WE wanted to improve it bearing in mind we have a primary school on route.. 92% according to our neighbours ( after closing date) own survey said they wanted a one way plan set up to stop a cut through.. the council then spent £1.25 million on speed humps and 20mph zones.. we regularly now have cars at up to 60mph in a 20mph zone actually going faster than before due to the speed humps annoying them and therefore them feeling the need to make up lost time between one set and the next.

I don't know what annoys me more speed humps or councillors ...

 

[normspanners]

Dont forget most springs are fitted at mot time because you havnt heard them break and dont know until Mr Nasty looks under !! The one regards the golf that I was in when it snapped we both easily heard the twang and I would believe you would quite easily hear them whilst driving over speed bumps if that caused it .

 

[normspanners]

personally if we do have to have calming measures I like the contraflow system a little better than huge speed bumps at least if an emergency vehicle is coming you wait even though it is your right of way that is unless as they did here they put the waiting area right opposite some oak trees that prevented two trucks passing each other without pulling in their mirrors !! before they just used to slow to let the other past the trees now they have to stop and pull in the mirrors !! GREAT thinking.
I remember reading about a guy that the council put speed bumps in right out side his house without asking / consulting and it made his families life hell with trucks and boy racers all braking with squealing brakes then bang bang as the tippers bounced over and then the BR's revving away .
This went on 24 /7 he asked the council to move it further away to a 'gap' area where there was no houses, they ignored him
So he brought one of his JCB's home and dug it up, he was charged with criminal damages. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1443094/Builder-defends-right-to-dig-up-noisy-speed-bump.html
what he should have done was say he had to drop the bucket in an emergency !!¬

 

[normspanners]

I don't know what annoys me more speed humps or councillors ...

They were called sleeping policemen years ago they should be called---------- lazy councillors

 

[normspanners]

changing the springs on his drive.

Wow they must be BIG springs !!!

 

[wookie]

I remember reading about a guy that the council put speed bumps in right out side his house without asking / consulting and it made his families life hell with trucks and boy racers all braking with squealing brakes then bang bang as the tippers bounced over and then the BR's revving away .

Where I used to live they had dug a trench across the road and then badly filled it in so that it sunk, the whole house used to shake from the lorries bouncing over the dip.

 

[normspanners]

Where I used to live they had dug a trench across the road and then badly filled it in so that it sunk, the whole house used to shake from the lorries bouncing over the dip.

yep not nice... my mate had similar they trenched across AFTER a new surface was laid, it was the main road for the tipping trucks but his house had a 10ft retaining wall right on the pavement side then his house was on top of that and the wall started to collapse------ along with it------ his house!!! MASSIVE CRACKS EVERY WHERE it would shake you on your seat in his kitchen literally the light would swing in the bedroom ... he complained the council came out looked, then put temporary traffic lights out side, he thought to fix the road------ oh no---- the lights were there for months ------- it was incase the wall collapsed ------ Then to add insult they sent HIM, the £k bill for the lights. and did NOTHING about the road !!

 

[fixerupper]

Noodle towers is on a Rat run street where people cut through to avoid traffic lights etc.. after endless complaints from residents the council wrote to us all asking what WE wanted to improve it bearing in mind we have a primary school on route.. 92% according to our neighbours ( after closing date) own survey said they wanted a one way plan set up to stop a cut through.. the council then spent £1.25 million on speed humps and 20mph zones.. we regularly now have cars at up to 60mph in a 20mph zone actually going faster than before due to the speed humps annoying them and therefore them feeling the need to make up lost time between one set and the next.

I don't know what annoys me more speed humps or councillors ...

Well that's the same sort of situation we had in Lancaster years ago ,, the bollards and speed bummps made it not worth using residential street as a rat run ..it worked ....problem was the bollards used up a few of the parking places and that was a problem ... when we moved there in 89 there was only about 15 or 20 cars in our street, when we left in 2005 every house had two cars

 

[Noods]

What cracked me up was after the humps were put in and after many more complaints they sent two council workers out to put a dinner plate size 20mph sign on a lamp post it took the pair of the 4 hrs to basically attach a large jubilee clip! Obv there was paperwork to do prior and then a risk assessment before a tea break or several... do they really think people doing 60mph are going to look up see a tiny 20mph sign and think oh my I must reduce my speed dramatically ?