Speed bumps

Mini850

:mad:

On my commute to and from work, I have to negotiate 9 speed bumps each way and I am actually sick of it. My commute is a mix of A-Road and city and is 19km each way.

The reason for the rant??? a new one went in yesterday...........its the straw that broke the camels back.

They are the bane of my daily commute.

Maybe because I drive a Mini Cooper S which is sprung fairly hard. Maybe not though as I take the Mondeo sometimes and it still irks me.



Ok ok ok they are effective at slowing cars down......but also effective in prematurely wearing my suspension components..........and not that I really care that much about fuel consumption, they must have an impact on the environment due to millions of cars a day stopping and starting every time they hit one.

There has to be a better way.

I mean there is, the fancy sensored pop up/drop down gizmos that you see vids of on Bacefook. But sure they cost many times what a hump of asphalt costs.

I could take another route but I still hit some and its way out of my way or traffic is mad.

vandriver

9!
Don't move to Dublin 6.You'd get that many on one road.

Del2005

Mini850 wrote: »

:mad:

On my commute to and from work, I have to negotiate 9 speed bumps each way and I am actually sick of it. My commute is a mix of A-Road and city and is 19km each way.

The reason for the rant??? a new one went in yesterday...........its the straw that broke the camels back.

They are the bane of my daily commute.

Maybe because I drive a Mini Cooper S which is sprung fairly hard. Maybe not though as I take the Mondeo sometimes and it still irks me.



Ok ok ok they are effective at slowing cars down......but also effective in prematurely wearing my suspension components..........and not that I really care that much about fuel consumption, they must have an impact on the environment due to millions of cars a day stopping and starting every time they hit one.

There has to be a better way.

I mean there is, the fancy sensored pop up/drop down gizmos that you see vids of on Bacefook. But sure they cost many times what a hump of asphalt costs.

I could take another route but I still hit some and its way out of my way or traffic is mad.

The ramps outside my apartment would disagree with the slowing cars down. They slow down drivers who already drive carefully not drivers who don't care, 2 trees and a lamppost taken out by cars.

If you think the fuel usage is bad for cars it's terrible for buses and HGVs, they need to slow to nearly a stop and then speed up again and some roads have ramps every few hundred meters.

The answer is active police enforcement of speed limits on roads in urban and residential areas not on motorway or high quality national roads. The council where I live has dropped the speed limit in residential areas to 30km/h and no one obeys it.

inforfun

11 speed bumps, 15 traffic light on a 7,8 km trip.
I win.

Mini850

inforfun wrote: »

11 speed bumps, 15 traffic light on a 7,8 km trip.
I win.

Or...sort of lose..........:p

inforfun

Tell me about it.

I dont drive to work.. I participate in concours hippique.

ThisRegard

Mini850 wrote: »

they must have an impact on the environment due to millions of cars a day stopping and starting every time they hit one.

They can be driven over at a constant speed without having to stop/start. My wife's car has stiffened suspension and they're more comfortable to drive over in hers than my family estate.

Del2005 wrote: »

If you think the fuel usage is bad for cars it's terrible for buses and HGVs, they need to slow to nearly a stop and then speed up again and some roads have ramps every few hundred meters.

Most speed ramps being put down in Dublin these days can be straddled by busses and trucks so again there's no stop/starting.

Mint Sauce

Up to 12 set of lights, 14 if you include pedestrian controlled ones, thankfully only three speed humps. All this in about 4.5km.

Alun

ThisRegard wrote: »

They can be driven over at a constant speed without having to stop/start. My wife's car has stiffened suspension and they're more comfortable to drive over in hers than my family estate.

Maybe the ones you drive over regularly can be, but that's the problem, not all of them fall into this category, there's an absolutely huge difference from one area to another, and even from one bump to the other in the same area.

On the roads I travel on frequently, there are some that are more like speed cushions than bumps where you can drive over them quite happily at the speed limit of 50km/h but go any faster and it starts to get a bit uncomfortable. On the other hand, there are some on an R road with an 80km/h limit coming into a village I drive through regularly, with a 50km/h limit that extends to ridiculous limits outside the village, where if you don't slow down to 20km/h you'll probably break your suspension.

That's the big problem, the unpredictability of them, when driving in areas you don't know, so people understandably err on the side of caution.

Isambard

i think they should be re-named. They just slow me down, nothing "speed" about them.

ThisRegard

Alun wrote: »

not all of them fall into this category, .....

That's the big problem, the unpredictability of them, when driving in areas you don't know, so people understandably err on the side of caution.

I agree, which is why I clarified the ones recently put down in Dublin (well recently as in the last few years), they all seem to be of a universal type.

cfuserkildare

Has any form of investigation been initiated regarding the effect that Speed Bumps have on patients inside Ambulances?
Especially patients with Spinal Injuries?
If a Spinal Injury is aggravated by the effect of Speed Bumps, then Who is responsible?

H3llR4iser

Mini850 wrote: »

Ok ok ok they are effective at slowing cars down......but also effective in prematurely wearing my suspension components..........and not that I really care that much about fuel consumption, they must have an impact on the environment due to millions of cars a day stopping and starting every time they hit one...

I would disagree with that - they are only effective with drivers who actually give a passing p1ss about their cars.

I have to go through 3/4 of them in my street to reach my apartment complex, and it's an almost sure event that whomever is behind me just overtakes in the bus lane and flies over the ramps. I've actually seen the rear wheels lifting off the tarmac in a few cases (speedbump+worn suspension+idiot at the wheel will cause that).

Same in other places - most drivers just power through them in a cacophony of banging and crashing from suspension/subframes. It's particularly apparent, for example, with the ones near the GCD Dart station...sometimes you'll even find bits of front splitters discarded along the footpath.

ianobrien

I slow down to a crawl to got over them (tickover in first gear if they are bad) and I don't really care who gets alloyed by my going so slow. If people get annoyed by me going so slow, complain to the local authority. If more people complain, maybe they'll take them out.

I think that most of them are a "quick win" solution used so that the local authority can tell the local busybodies community association or concerned parents group that they are serious about reducing speed on the road. Speed ramps only reduce the speed on the road immediately before and immediately after the ramp. The rest of the time cars are travelling along unhindered. Proper speed reduction measures along the entire length of the road should be done (narrow the lanes, kerbs, etc.). Think about it, when was the last time you saw a speed check in a housing estate or industrial estate?

ThisRegard

ianobrien wrote: »

Think about it, when was the last time you saw a speed check in a housing estate or industrial estate?

A couple of months ago local to me. Random speed checks by the gardai and digital speed readouts didn't do much for most drivers who didn't live in the area, so speed ramps where put in as a last resort.