Speed ramps in built up areas

Package ah crips

What is the actual point of them?

If their supposed purpose is to slow traffic down, well, they work, to a degree.
I myself will maintain an overall average lower speed appropriate to the ramps over and in between them especially in built up areas.
However, you then get impatient twats overtaking you who then speed up between ramps and slow down when the reach the ramp and speed back up again. Thus, the only apparent effect of the ramp is to slow people down AT them and leaving them to speed up in between them.

I have actually heard (anecdotally mind) of people failing their test on progress if they maintain 30 km/h in built up areas and estates (and not speeding up in between) which is the speed that the ramps are supposedly designed to make you do. So are the council and RSA contradicting each other? One wants you to bring down your speed overall in the estate and the other asks you to speed up in between them or face test failure I didn't fail any tests myself before smug pricks gallop in. I have A and B full.

If their supposed purpose is to reduce noise, well, ramps have the opposite effect. Again, people are speeding up between them and dropping anchors as they reach them and speeding up again, thus making more noise pollution. A friend of mine is testament to that. Her and the neighbours all petitioned for ramps because of traffic noise, now that they are installed, the noise is worse.

I have family in Germany. Speed ramps are practically unseen in built up areas. Yet people rigidly obey traffic rules and crawl along in estates.

If the aim of ramps is to reduce overall speed, why not install fixed average speed cameras ? No manning, initial installation cost that will quickly pay for itself in fine revenue and long term in saved lives.

Lets not talk about the impact they have on emergency service vehicles. Ambulances having to slow down and nearly stop. There are two particularly bad ramps, one in Skerries near the hardware and one in Bray near the DART station. You nearly have to crawl over that at 5 km/h.

Smee_Again

Average speed cameras aren't (afaik) legislated for in law so speed bumps and other traffic calming measures are the only option for local authorities.

Miscreant

Other than to slow down traffic for safety reasons, they serve no other purpose.

I would be one of the few drivers in my estate who maintains an even speed as opposed to the speed up/slow down brigade too. I have been overtaken on occasion by my own neighbours who would then be pulling in to their driveway parking space at exactly the same time as me so the mind absolutely boggles!

In relation to speed cameras; they would certainly pay for themselves for a while but in a housing estate, everyone will know where they are after a time and just slow down near them so the returns would drop relatively quickly. Factor in the maintenance, upkeep and potential for vandalism and the costs would quickly mount up. Speed ramps, by contract, need nothing other than the initial installation and work well enough to drop the average speed to the desired level for a prolonged period of time.

I'll keep going the way I do with speed ramps and know that I am saving myself money on fuel and premature brake and suspension wear over those speed up/slow down merchants.
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colm_mcm

Depending on the speed limit, there’s nothing wrong with speeding up and slowing down for the ramps?

thelad95

colm_mcm wrote: »

Depending on the speed limit, there’s nothing wrong with speeding up and slowing down for the ramps?

Speed limit 30km/h but in reality a lot of people will bang it up as high as 60 before flooring the breaks for the speed bump.

If everyone just kept to the 30km/h then there wouldn't be a need for the speed bumps.

coylemj

colm_mcm wrote: »

Depending on the speed limit, there’s nothing wrong with speeding up and slowing down for the ramps?

Nothing wrong at all. Provided you disregard the negative effect on fuel consumption and the additional wear on your tyres.

Seth Brundle

Package ah crips wrote: »

What is the actual point of them?

If their supposed purpose is to slow traffic down, well, they work, to a degree.
I myself will maintain an overall average lower speed appropriate to the ramps over and in between them especially in built up areas.
However, you then get impatient twats overtaking you who then speed up between ramps and slow down when the reach the ramp and speed back up again. Thus, the only apparent effect of the ramp is to slow people down AT them and leaving them to speed up in between them.

Whilst most people claim to drive slowly including yourself, the reality is that a significant number of drivers do not.

When I was growing up, it was common to see kids out playing on the road. Nowadays it is not so common.
There is one reason for this!

SVI40

Big issue I have with speed ramps, is that you cannot maintain a constant speed on the road with them. In some areas, they are so bad, you need to slow down to 10kph to go over them yet the limit is 50kph. No consistency at all. They should be designed/built to allow you keep the relevant speed, while going over them.

beauf

SVI40 wrote: »

Big issue I have with speed ramps, is that you cannot maintain a constant speed on the road with them. In some areas, they are so bad, you need to slow down to 10kph to go over them yet the limit is 50kph. No consistency at all. They should be designed/built to allow you keep the relevant speed, while going over them.

Some cars can manage these bumps at higher speeds than others.

loyatemu

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Whilst most people claim to drive slowly including yourself, the reality is that a significant number of drivers do not.

When I was growing up, it was common to see kids out playing on the road. Nowadays it is not so common.
There is one reason for this!

2 reasons - every house has at least 2 cars now, and they're parked higgledy piggledy all over every housing estate making for a much less safe environment for kids. (the cars themselves are bigger on average too, taking up even more space).

endacl

It’s a plot by big suspension...

beauf

Package ah crips wrote: »

What is the actual point of them?...

They are usually brought in where everything else has failed.

No one wants them. But some, many even, just won't slow down.

Seth Brundle

loyatemu wrote: »

2 reasons - every house has at least 2 cars now, and they're parked higgledy piggledy all over every housing estate making for a much less safe environment for kids. (the cars themselves are bigger on average too, taking up even more space).

Fair enough but the reason I was alluding to was the drivers rather than the vehicle. I'd include how the driver parks their vehicle in that also.
Cars don't kill - drivers do!

Wishbone Ash

SVI40 wrote: »

...They should be designed/built to allow you keep the relevant speed, while going over them.

That wouldn't work - all vehicles are different.

They are pox if you have low profile tyres with big wheels.
There is always some prick right up your hole as you slow down.

The Continental Op

endacl wrote: »

It’s a plot by big suspension...

And a failure of Ford. Not had a Focus yet I haven't had to replace the rear springs on and often the front.

Speed ramps are part of the driving environment now so wtf can't manufacturers uprate their springs by just fraction.

Seth Brundle

BrownFinger wrote: »

There is always some prick right up your hole as you slow down.

Are you seriously saying that a car behind you makes you drive faster?
(Ignore them!)

beauf

BrownFinger wrote: »

They are pox if you have low profile tyres with big wheels.
There is always some prick right up your hole as you slow down.

Come on its funny. Car slammed, dustbin sized exhaust, tyres sprayed on the rims.... and some granny overtakes on their 60 section tyres.

beauf

The Continental Op wrote: »

And a failure of Ford. Not had a Focus yet I haven't had to replace the rear springs on and often the front.

Speed ramps are part of the driving environment now so wtf can't manufacturers uprate their springs by just fraction.

Its also the big rims, low profile tyres.

d15ude

Package ah crips wrote: »

Speed ramps are practically unseen in built up areas.
Yet people rigidly obey traffic rules and crawl along in estates.

Both claims are not true.

PhilOssophy

Speed bumps are a problem....until you live on a road with a speeding problem!

The Continental Op

beauf wrote: »

Its also the big rims, low profile tyres.

Even bigger rims and lower profile tyres would put proportionally less force on bigger springs.

thelad95

Some areas have those stupid half arsed speed bumps on both sides of the road instead of a single continuous bump. If you have a wide enough car, you can drive over it without your wheels even touching it. Utter waste of money.

Seth Brundle

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Are you seriously saying that a car behind you makes you drive faster?
(Ignore them!)

Where did I say that ?
Seriously?

beauf

beauf wrote: »

Come on its funny. Car slammed, dustbin sized exhaust, tyres sprayed on the rims.... and some granny overtakes on their 60 section tyres.

Eh, cars come with 18,19,20" wheels these days.

AUDI20

BrownFinger wrote: »

They are pox if you have low profile tyres with big wheels.
There is always some prick right up your hole as you slow down.

You don't need ramps for that to happen

DaveyDave

They've added loads around Lucan in recent years that were just unnecessary and they're all so close to each other you're forever slowing down and speeding up. I used to live in an apartment where there was a 500m curved road leading up to the main road. It already had 3 speed bumps then they added another 3. The road wasn't dangerous at all, despite the curve in the road visibility was very open and the current speed bumps were adequate. The road in question was just for housing estates to get to the main road so there wasn't a huge volume of traffic and the roundabouts everywhere meant you wouldn't be using it as a shortcut to get somewhere.

They added two on the road leading to my friend's estate which is a dead end and only 200m, they're the short ones that drop the front end when your back wheels hit it. Nobody living there wanted them.

All they do is disrupt traffic and add to the congestion and add unnecessary wear and tear and extra fuel. I often find there's far too many of them, too close together and they're on quieter roads.

corks finest

Package ah crips wrote: »

What is the actual point of them?

If their supposed purpose is to slow traffic down, well, they work, to a degree.
I myself will maintain an overall average lower speed appropriate to the ramps over and in between them especially in built up areas.
However, you then get impatient twats overtaking you who then speed up between ramps and slow down when the reach the ramp and speed back up again. Thus, the only apparent effect of the ramp is to slow people down AT them and leaving them to speed up in between them.

I have actually heard (anecdotally mind) of people failing their test on progress if they maintain 30 km/h in built up areas and estates (and not speeding up in between) which is the speed that the ramps are supposedly designed to make you do. So are the council and RSA contradicting each other? One wants you to bring down your speed overall in the estate and the other asks you to speed up in between them or face test failure I didn't fail any tests myself before smug pricks gallop in. I have A and B full.

If their supposed purpose is to reduce noise, well, ramps have the opposite effect. Again, people are speeding up between them and dropping anchors as they reach them and speeding up again, thus making more noise pollution. A friend of mine is testament to that. Her and the neighbours all petitioned for ramps because of traffic noise, now that they are installed, the noise is worse.

I have family in Germany. Speed ramps are practically unseen in built up areas. Yet people rigidly obey traffic rules and crawl along in estates.

If the aim of ramps is to reduce overall speed, why not install fixed average speed cameras ? No manning, initial installation cost that will quickly pay for itself in fine revenue and long term in saved lives.

Lets not talk about the impact they have on emergency service vehicles. Ambulances having to slow down and nearly stop. There are two particularly bad ramps, one in Skerries near the hardware and one in Bray near the DART station. You nearly have to crawl over that at 5 km/h.

Ask any parent who's lost a child in an estate ref speeding cars etc and I'll bet they'll agree wholeheartedly that spied ramps are a must as some idiots are just lunatics and need slowed down

corks finest

A friend of mine lives in Drogheda, along a road, HERE.


Poor planning for a start, as those houses are built onto a major roadway in and out of the town, to the M1. Very busy road. Houses were there a few years and then residents started moaning to the council about HGVs on the road. So the council (without signposting an alternate route) stuck up weight limit signs on the road (on the road itself, so a truck will already be on the road before seeing the signs).


Of course you still get trucks up and down it, and buses dropping/collecting kids for school and such.


Then the residents decided the street (a main road) was a play area for kids, so they wanted speed ramps installed to slow down traffic. The council eventually put them in.


I've stayed in my friends house a few times on that road, and now what you have is not only the noise of cars, vans and the odd HGV coming and going, but you also have all of them slapping across the ramps, all night long. It's a 50 stretch, and so people are slowing, revving up between ramps, thudding over them, and then flooring it back up to the limit for the rest of the (non-ramped) road.


My friend won't admit it, of course, as he was in favour of the speed ramps, but the traffic noise is much, much worse than it ever was before. There is a house estate being built down the road, and three large sites marked for development beside them, too. So you have builders towing trailers clattering and banging over ramps from 7 in the morning, all the traffic headed to the M1, the school buses, etc. and then when the trucks do pass by (and they used to just sail by in one smooth movement, was never sure why there was an issue with them to be honest) now they're slowing, revving, clattering and banging over ramps aswell.


It's made a massive difference to the area's noise levels, and as all these houses directly overlook the road, with no walls, hedges or fences, the noise goes straight into the house.

corks finest wrote: »

Ask any parent who's lost a child in an estate ref speeding cars etc

I wonder what the figures are for that. I'd say exceptionally low.

beauf wrote: »

They are usually brought in where everything else has failed.

Not sure where you live, but in Louth, Meath and Cavan (places I have knowledge of) they're often the first idea to get used.

Hurrache

I live in a village that is a bit of a rat run in the mornings and evenings, so much so it there was such a constant flow of traffic through it at those times, ignoring the reduced limit for the most part, people couldn't easily get out of any of the adjoining roads. And as it was originally a relatively old rural road, the adjoining footpath were very narrow, some at the point in which if you were to walk two abreast you could be brushed by a passing vehicle. It was so bad to walk through that you wouldn't let kids walk to the nearest shop.

Flashing signs that gave you your speed, and occasional garda speed checks didn't help, so speed ramps were eventually welcomed by most of the residents, despite all them having cars. You still get twats tailgating you through the village using it as a rat run, selfish dicks.

Seth Brundle

thelad95 wrote: »

Some areas have those stupid half arsed speed bumps on both sides of the road instead of a single continuous bump. If you have a wide enough car, you can drive over it without your wheels even touching it. Utter waste of money.

You still slow down though, right?

frozenfrozen

they are great to discourage people using a road rather than slowing cars down. You'll still have people doing well over the speed limit over them etc but if you've got 8 ramps in a row people will stop using the road as a shortcut.

Hate them because depending on the road and vehicle they can do nothing to slow people down or else give you a surprise massive speed bump sometimes even if you're doing 15km/h

DaveyDave

thelad95 wrote: »

Some areas have those stupid half arsed speed bumps on both sides of the road instead of a single continuous bump. If you have a wide enough car, you can drive over it without your wheels even touching it. Utter waste of money.

They're for buses as far as I know.

Seth Brundle

DaveyDave wrote: »

They've added loads around Lucan in recent years that were just unnecessary and they're all so close to each other you're forever slowing down and speeding up. I used to live in an apartment where there was a 500m curved road leading up to the main road. It already had 3 speed bumps then they added another 3. The road wasn't dangerous at all, despite the curve in the road visibility was very open and the current speed bumps were adequate. The road in question was just for housing estates to get to the main road so there wasn't a huge volume of traffic and the roundabouts everywhere meant you wouldn't be using it as a shortcut to get somewhere.

They added two on the road leading to my friend's estate which is a dead end and only 200m, they're the short ones that drop the front end when your back wheels hit it. Nobody living there wanted them.

All they do is disrupt traffic and add to the congestion and add unnecessary wear and tear and extra fuel. I often find there's far too many of them, too close together and they're on quieter roads.

It wasn't dangerous to who?
Are you judging that from a drivers perspective? A pedestrians perspective? A cyclists? A parents?

As for your claim that they add to congestion - only one thing adds to traffic congestion and that is traffic!

Isambard

i don't think they should be called speed bumps, can't get up hardly any speed with them there. Slow bumps would be a better name. Think I'll phone my TD

Eoinbmw

They are a necessary evil!
Having 3 young kids and livinging a built up estate i can see good reason for them!
At the same time they are (unt on lower performance cars!

Marcusm

colm_mcm wrote: »

Depending on the speed limit, there’s nothing wrong with speeding up and slowing down for the ramps?

It’s inefficient and I have been told that braking just before the ramp lowers the front of the car so that the impact is greater than it would otherwise be.

thelad95

Seth Brundle wrote: »

You still slow down though, right?

My point was a lot of people don't as they can just drive straight over without any effect on their suspension whatsoever.

colm_mcm

Marcusm wrote: »

It’s inefficient and I have been told that braking just before the ramp lowers the front of the car so that the impact is greater than it would otherwise be.

I wouldn’t lose any sleep over how inefficient it is. If somebody is doing a constant speed over and in between the ramps then in my opinion they’re driving too slowly and can’t criticise anyone who overtakes them safely.

Andrewf20

I thought they were to deter joyriding primarily.

Wishbone Ash

thelad95 wrote: »

Some areas have those stupid half arsed speed bumps on both sides of the road instead of a single continuous bump. If you have a wide enough car, you can drive over it without your wheels even touching it. Utter waste of money.

Speed cushions. To facilitate buses. Some bus companies will refuse to use certain routes if the speed ramps cause too much discomfort and wear and tear.

corks finest

Eoinbmw wrote: »

They are a necessary evil!
Having 3 young kids and livinging a built up estate i can see good reason for them!
At the same time they are (unt on lower performance cars!

Exactly my point anyone with young kids see the sense of them

DaveyDave

Seth Brundle wrote: »

It wasn't dangerous to who?
Are you judging that from a drivers perspective? A pedestrians perspective? A cyclists? A parents?

As for your claim that they add to congestion - only one thing adds to traffic congestion and that is traffic!

I've been a motorist, cyclist and pedestrian. Driving to work and cycling and running on my days off. The path is about 3 meters from the road with a bike lane in between and plenty of trees, signs, street lights and also bollards at every junction. As I said it's a very open area compared to other roads around. The existing speed bumps were fine.

Plenty of other roads similar to it that don't have speed bumps and aren't an issue.

McCrack

Seth Brundle wrote: »

It wasn't dangerous to who?
Are you judging that from a drivers perspective? A pedestrians perspective? A cyclists? A parents?

As for your claim that they add to congestion - only one thing adds to traffic congestion and that is traffic!

You have added nothing to this thread except ask stupid and perhaps even antagonising questions

beauf

colm_mcm wrote: »

I wouldn’t lose any sleep over how inefficient it is. If somebody is doing a constant speed over and in between the ramps then in my opinion they’re driving too slowly and can’t criticise anyone who overtakes them safely.

Depends on the road.

In some case a constant speed over range means a quicker average A-B time than slowing down and speed it. Depends on a range of factors.

I used to have great fun in leaving cars behind on long roads with ramps. If there were long intervals between ramps.

Buddy Bubs

colm_mcm wrote: »

I wouldn’t lose any sleep over how inefficient it is. If somebody is doing a constant speed over and in between the ramps then in my opinion they’re driving too slowly and can’t criticise anyone who overtakes them safely.

Theres a road with about 2kms of ramps near my house and also for about 1km in my industrial estate. They're harmless enough don't have to crawl over them or anything but there are people who speed up between them a lot and slow down a lot coming up to them. My constant speed over them gets me there same time as them. I can see cars catching up behind me then falling away again 5 or 6 times. It's a built up area with 50kmph limit but I do the while roads at about 55-60 which feels perfectly fine for the shallow ramps but most go up over 70 or so then down to 30 or so for ramps. It's bizarre.

Seth Brundle

McCrack wrote: »

You have added nothing to this thread except ask stupid and perhaps even antagonising questions

Either report my posts or prove me wrong but it reflects more on you when you play the man rather than the ball!

beauf

The Continental Op wrote: »

Even bigger rims and lower profile tyres would put proportionally less force on bigger springs.

They are heavier, and you lose some of the shock absorbency of regular profile tire's. So basically the spring has to do even more work. So you have to go slower over speed bumps. You could counter this by softer springs, but that causes other problems. Most of the time people put in stiffer sprints, losing even more absorbency,

colm_mcm

beauf wrote: »

Depends on the road.

In some case a constant speed over range means a quicker average A-B time than slowing down and speed it. Depends on a range of factors.

I used to have great fun in leaving cars behind on long roads with ramps. If there were long intervals between ramps.

I would say there’s a maximum speed you can go over speed bumps, so I can’t see how speeding up in between them would make your average speed lower than not speeding up.

I have seen people speeding up a bit too much in between bumps that are quite close together, but I reckon they probably don’t gain much by doing that alright.

Mimon

Necessary evil. Crawl in my estate as there are kids everywhere and some of them are clueless to traffic. There are drivers who don't even think about these things and bomb it even with toddlers running around. At least the speed bumps will get them to slow down a bit.

colm_mcm

Buddy Bubs wrote: »

Theres a road with about 2kms of ramps near my house and also for about 1km in my industrial estate. They're harmless enough don't have to crawl over them or anything but there are people who speed up between them a lot and slow down a lot coming up to them. My constant speed over them gets me there same time as them. I can see cars catching up behind me then falling away again 5 or 6 times. It's a built up area with 50kmph limit but I do the while roads at about 55-60 which feels perfectly fine for the shallow ramps but most go up over 70 or so then down to 30 or so for ramps. It's bizarre.

So maybe they’re going over the ramps slower than you do?
I must say in the Skoda I can comfortably go over speed bumps a lot faster than on the Civic.