Warning Sign/Road Humps

Pre-Worboys sign

There was no need for this sign until the 1980s.

Worboys Report sign

When road humps, or 'sleeping policemen', were first invented they were seemingly strewn across urban roads at will. However, before long claims started coming in from motorists who had either inadvertently, or perhaps deliberately, failed to brake in time for the bumps and so damaged their vehicles. The result was that a new sign was created to warn of the impending danger.

The sign is similar to the Hump Bridge, albeit squashed down and with the 'arch' blanked out. However, it is numbered in TSRGD as a variant of the Slippery Road Warning Sign!

Irish sign

The Irish equivalent (as prescribed in the Traffic Signs Manual 2010) is sign W 130 Road Hump, which is used to give warning of an individual sharp rise in the road surface. It features a symbol virtually identical to that employed in the UK version, though placed, of course, on a yellow diamond background.

The same sign is also provided at the start of a road where humps have been introduced as a traffic-calming measure (although it is not normally required on a road with a 30 km/h speed limit).

A variant – sign W 131 Road Depression, showing a hollow in place of the hump – is used to warn of an individual sharp depression in the road surface.