Speed bumps & lumps, best ways to tackle?

[T & P]

You don't often hear about recklessly speeding pedestrians mowing down schoolchildren though, do you?

No, though I often hear of, see, and on two ocassions to date experienced personally, pedestrians acting like lemmings and materialising on the road suddenly and without warning right in front of moving traffic, and causing bikes to crash in an attempt to avoid them. Or causing cars to hit the said pedestrians and even though not at fault in any way, still made the drivers to be at fault thanks to a set of regulations that give pedestrians de facto immunity against anything they do, no matter how reckless.

 

[kyser_soze]

It's true, peds are the most unaware group of road users out there, even beating School Run Mums for general 'No fucking idea what's going on around you' ratings...

 

[Roadkill]

I can't imagine speed bumps are much help to the emergency services, especially ambulances.

There are better ways of slowing down traffic, IMO.

 

[kyser_soze]

Full road speed bumps are the ones the ambulances complained about and are now much rarer, having been replaced with the lumps which are generally made to be narrow enough for the track of emergency vehicles to get over, but too wide for most cars to take them flat out...

 

[kained&able]

They need to make ones that lower themselves when school kids aren't around.

dave

 

[Jayen4]

They need to make ones that lower themselves when school kids aren't around.

dave

No,what they need to do,is GET RID OF THEM ! That and those bloody silly/annoying width restrictions. (Whoever thought of those should be SHOT !) Instead,try putting the money into better driver training AND trusting drivers to know when it's safe to go quickly and when it's not.
I'm all for speed limits being made 'advisory' anyway..... A lot of sped limits are so 'artificial' anyway.

 

[berniedicters]

Buy a massive 4x4 and power over them at 50mph++ while training your on-board flamethrower at all the pussies on the pavements and blasting your music full-on to punish everyone who lives there for wanting cars to drive legally down their road while simultaneously masturbating compulsively over a false memory borrowed from a car advert featuring this really great bit where you overtook another car while in perfect gearshift just as this bit of Bjork squeaking like she was coming in your ear just as you exited a really tight hairpin looking down over Val d'Issere and felt really - like - it and part of what's happening and really rich, but also beautifully, purely alone and special and you know it's just jealousy that makes people put in speed bumps because they want to spoil your life because some people are just like very negative about sort of everything and then throw a 'U'-y which you can't quite fit in the road but because you're in your monster super-maverick ranchero misfit late model purchased-individualism 4x4 you just go right over the kerb and come down again with this whump that is just total orgasm and then go and do it again and again and again and again and then write about it and then dream about it and so on for ever and ever amen.

Sorted.

Good rant.

Did you manage to glue your head together after it exploded, though?

 

[co-op]

I'm all for speed limits being made 'advisory' anyway......

In practise, they already are. That's why we have speed humps. Because the large majority of drivers seem incapable of making wise speed choices - particularly in relation to the safety of other road users.

 

[co-op]

Did you manage to glue your head together after it exploded, though?

Twas merely a temporary bypass of the frontal cortex and temporal lobes, a perfectly normal driving mode for most people. The lizard brain is put back on a chain afterwards.

 

[extra dry]

need some info. on your car like your driving an oldish motor 99-2000 model which if driven hard before would/could be liable to mechanical failure.
Best thing to do go slow put one side over the lump and just go slow.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

A road I am going to have to use a lot has many speed lumps on it.

By speed lump I mean a bump that is not full width of the carriage way and which tapers down at its edges.

I am not sure the best way to tackle them?

1) try to straddle them with the car wheels so that the car gets the least upwards movement possible but it seems to me that the wheels each get pushed out sideways a bit and I think this may wreck my ball joints faster.

2) move slightly to one side so that one set of wheels (the right lets say) miss the lump altogether while the other left wheels go up a bit more than in example 1 over the lump. This way little damage will be done to right wheels and left wheels will mainly be going up and down not being pushed out so much.

Are there any other strategies I could use?

What do you do and why?

Which is best for the car?

Depends on wheelbase. In a short wheelbase car, I hit them at a high speed, try to fly over. Longer wheelbase, that doesn't seem to work, so I go over them slowly.

 

[ExtraRefined]

I've always favoured the rally approach - break as hard as possible, starting about 10m out, then let off just before you hit. Rebound on your suspension bounces you over the bump. I used to take large bumps at >40 like that in my Fiesta

 

[gentlegreen]

My street has no school in it, but on the rare occaisions I fire up the jalope, I'll drive down it at less than 20mph - as slow as or slower than the speed I'll happily cycle down it.

I routinely get morons charging down the road towards me as if they think I'll get out of their way - though they'll only actually rev their engines and honk if I'm on the bike.

Leave early, take it gently, save petrol.

 

[Dravinian]

My street has no school in it, but on the rare occaisions I fire up the jalope, I'll drive down it at less than 20mph - as slow as or slower than the speed I'll happily cycle down it.

I routinely get morons charging down the road towards me as if they think I'll get out of their way - though they'll only actually rev their engines and honk if I'm on the bike.

Leave early, take it gently, save petrol.

What I really love are drivers in BMW and Mercs Convertibles who motor towards you as if they are playing chicken. Had some guy call me a "prick" through open windows just the other day after he tried the same thing.

If they were to stop I would point out.

1, my car is old and cheap.
2, my car has a 5 star Encap rating for head-on collisions.

So I don't care if you want to write off your 30k Convertible and put yourself in hospital for 6 months, that is entirely your choice.

I think the problem is my car is a "mom" car. So people expect a school mom to be driving it and one that is afraid of them and their revving engine.


Back on topic....

I don't mind Speed Bumps generally speaking, as I don't drive fast anyway, I'm a real stickler for the speed limit....except when someone starts to drive up my arse, then I just slow down until they get the message....so speed bumps aren't that big of a deal. What I do hate are these new things they have decided to put in, which is a speed bump on a corner...what a nightmare, getting thrown around in your car like a rag doll, no matter how slowly you go over them...it is the left to right tilt that is a problem as the right wheel goes up, alone, you get thrown to the left, then the left front hits the bump and you are thrown back, then the right wheel drops off just as the back left wheel hits the bump just as the right front falls off and you are thrown up one side of the car and then it goes the other way when the front left comes off the bump.

Those I really hate.

 

[bi0boy]

I'd go for 2 as I heard that doing 1 lots of times can damage your tyres.

 

[gentlegreen]

I just drive over them square-on and very slowly - if I do it too fast when fully loaded, my tow bar makes sparks ...

 

[Cobbles]

I don't think you are taking this seriously enough!

There are about 10-15 of these lumps (next to a school) and I and my expartner will be driving down this road many times every week.

I am sure if taken wrongly they can/will cause damage to suspension linkages and extra expense which we cannot afford.

To straddle them does not feel natural, it feels like the wheels are being forced out to the left and right. My car has a wide enough track width to just slightly be affected by the lump. My expartners car has a narrower width and does get affected by one side or the other.

To put right wheels to the right of them and let the left wheels go over them feels much more natural, it feels as if the wheels on the left are only being forced upwards not to the side.

I recently spent a pretty packet on ball joints on my expartners car, don't want that again any time soon.

Sue the Local Authority for any suspension damage/rapid wear of bearings/ball joints - a couple of motorists have done so successfully in Edinburgh.

 

[gentlegreen]

I only noticed this morning that the next street to me effectively has a lot of speed bumps ... or rather, dips, where service trenches have subsided.

The most effective speed control on that street though is the large number of children who play in the road.

At the end of the day, I don't think many motorists would sue parents for the child-size dent in their car.