Road humps

[wallmeerkat]

Big Citroens used to be good at going over road humps. I remember one time a boy racer was tailgating me for doing 30 in a 30, came to the road humps, my Xantia just cruised over like they weren't there - he had to stop and crawl over them, then zoomed up to my tail, stopped for the next one, and so on and so on...

Annoying speed humps on University Avenue, Belfast this is my bus route, and usually the drivers just take them at 30mph. If you have someone sitting beside you it can be awkward as they really jolt you out of your seat.

[Ruperts Trooper]

Big Citroens used to be good at going over road humps. I remember one time a boy racer was tailgating me for doing 30 in a 30, came to the road humps, my Xantia just cruised over like they weren't there - he had to stop and crawl over them, then zoomed up to my tail, stopped for the next one, and so on and so on...

Annoying speed humps on University Avenue, Belfast this is my bus route, and usually the drivers just take them at 30mph. If you have someone sitting beside you it can be awkward as they really jolt you out of your seat.

I thought the part-width "cushions" were intended to target cars while letting bikes and wider vehicles through unhindered?

My previous SUV was steel-sprung and quite good on cushions while my current air-sprung SUV is immune to them - but not immune to the ramps on "tables" at crossings or the narrow strips..

[wallmeerkat]

I don't know if they catch the inside of the bus wheels, or if the bus is never perfectly centred, but they really do give a jolt.

You can just about see the green park and ride bus in that link, and it looks to be hugging the middle of the road to avoid wing mirrors.

[Johnathan404]

The side-effect of people getting more brazen when driving over speed humps is that it makes it very hard to cross the road if you don't know whether the approaching vehicle is about to slow to a crawl or bounce over it.

[FosseWay]

The side-effect of people getting more brazen when driving over speed humps is that it makes it very hard to cross the road if you don't know whether the approaching vehicle is about to slow to a crawl or bounce over it.

Anything that interferes with free-flowing traffic (other than a light-controlled pedestrian crossing, obviously) has the potential to make it more difficult for pedestrians to cross the road. If you have a pinch-point on a reasonably well-used road, you will often accumulate several vehicles waiting to go through it, which will then proceed in convoy with no gaps when their way is clear. As they proceed, traffic in the opposite direction is slowing, distances between vehicles are reducing, or there is a stationary queue that obscures visibility.

20 mph limits can have a similar effect, as more vehicles are travelling at the limit at any given time, in convoy just following close behind the vehicle in front. If the limit is 30, there will be at any given time a number of drivers who are just setting off, preparing to stop, intending to turn or who are just uncomfortable driving at 30 who therefore break the traffic flow up a bit. In isolation, of course, you could argue that the higher the limit, the more that is the case, and therefore we should have 40, 50, whatever limits on urban streets, which is plainly daft. It's all a matter of the precise nature of the road in question and the traffic flows on it. But broadly if a road is well enough used for there to be continuous streams of traffic, then it probably isn't sensible to give it a 20 limit or put a load of hindrances to motor vehicles on it. On the other hand, roads with little motor traffic whose layout encourages speeds that are completely incompatible with a residential area need redesigning. I've seen plenty in both categories, and to the casual observer, the outliers often seem to be victims of blanket calming policies. If all roads in Area X are subject to a 20 zone, you will inevitably catch some roads for which that is unsuitable, and conversely if you're in an area where traffic calming and lowered speed limits have not yet been considered, you will get roads where it is possible (or even legal) to drive far too fast.

[Norfolktolancashire]

There are some horrible road humps on the way to Kynanch Cove in Cornwall, these ones go slightly askew so the whole car wobbles sideways!

www.google.co.uk/maps/@49.9752039,-5.21 ... 312!8i6656

[multiraider2]

There are some horrible road humps on the way to Kynanch Cove in Cornwall, these ones go slightly askew so the whole car wobbles sideways!

www.google.co.uk/maps/@49.9752039,-5.21 ... 312!8i6656

Yes, those ones on the drive to the car park at Kynance Cove make all four wheels raise sperately. We took holidays on the Lizard quite a bit when the children were young and they had fun repeating "urgh, urgh, urgh, urgh" to mimic the car going over these. If nothing was coming the other way, I did take partly to the wrong side of the road and effecting a turn at the hump to square the car off.