SPEED HUMPS

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 20 Jan 2005, 16:09

An article from a newspaper that might be of interest:-
A classic car owner is threatening to sue a council, because speed humps in his street are too high for his low-slung car.
Angry David Cleminson has already won one court battle after his 1936 Standard Avon kept getting stuck.
A judge ordered humps be removed from one end of the street in Carlisle, Cumbria after hearing that workmen made them half an inch too high.
Although David 49, is fed up with having to make huge detours to avoid the humps at the other end of the road.
He stormed "I don't see why I should have to avoid certain routes."
When you consider that speed humps seem to be everywhere, and they are built in many different ways by every council, the Highways Agency allows them to design their own humps. So there is no consistancy, if a standard design were used everywhere, or if they had proper regulations to determine approach, and departure angles then a car would not get damaged when driven over them at the correct speed. 
The split ones are designed for emergency vehicles, so they have a smooth ride, and are not slowed down. Which is obviously important for ambulances, as the jolts would not help the injured person inside.
Fact is many car drivers do not slow down for them either, so they then have no effect on slowing the traffic down !
Still, the newspaper article might give hope that it's possible to challenge a council about them. [:D]

Robin · Post by **Robin** » 20 Jan 2005, 17:21

and the worst speed offenders over them are Citroen drivers. I wonder why [:D][:D][:D]

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 20 Jan 2005, 18:27

Well with my 1998/9 Xantia Activa being stiffer than the other models, I do slow slightly more for passenger comfort, and also to save the car from damage.
I guess if I had an Xantia without the Activa set up, then it would be better on the humps, but less fun on the bends. [:)]

Stuart McB · Post by **Stuart McB** » 21 Jan 2005, 00:39

Pug 406 estate 40MPH you dont feel them either. Found that out in 1990 on a Telford housing estate while working for the local Council. By me there are humps on nearly every back road. So many that residents who live in these roads and streets have to park on them so they are out side there own properties. Local Police turn a blind eye to this at night as very little traffic about using the roads. Begs the question why put them in then?

Homer · Post by **Homer** » 21 Jan 2005, 12:49

The local yobbos like the speed bumps on their council estate.
They make great launch ramps for their quadbikes!

vanny · Post by **vanny** » 21 Jan 2005, 15:51

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Robin

and the worst speed offenders over them are Citroen drivers. I wonder why [:D][:D][:D]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I am an offender of this! Theres a lovely road by here thats wide enough for four lanes, but only has two and long slung speed bumps. If they werent there, then i have no doubt that people would drive down the road at rediculous speeds, but when do certain drivers find the need to slow down to 10 mph or less to travers them? I mean these are the huge wide ones that you can park on top of completey even, so it makes no sence. I do enjoy going overthem a little to fast and watching passengers squerm, until they realise they've past the speed bump and didnt notice!

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 21 Jan 2005, 16:28

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Originally posted by Stuart McB
So many that residents who live in roads and streets have to park on them so they are out side there own properties <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Well when people end up having to park on the speed bumps, it can if they are of the split type, with three of them positioned across the road, ensure they strangely enough function better.
This is because, and many drivers do this, if the hump is driven over with the wheels either side of it, and the main body of the hump is under the cars floorpan, it can be driven over more quickly. Cars are not as wide as the emergency vehicles that the split type is designed for, as their wide track should not be affected by the split type speed hump. Although obviously it also assists white van man/woman as their van will also negotiate it with ease.
So with a vehicle parked on the hump the road is narrowed, and the vehicle approaching the hump has to then pull out into the middle area, which puts them closer to traffic coming towards them. It can also mean that the driver cannot avoid the hump, and has to drive over the main body of the hump, slowing them down.
I also have two other cars, and one is lowered so humps have to be driven over carefully. While the other can catch the exhaust, so again I have to negotiate humps carefully. Obviously the Citroen does not have a problem with the humps.
What really winds me up, [:(!] is the driver that overtakes you as you are going over the speed hump.
I was in central London on the far side of Battersea Park, on this stretch of road their are many split humps. There are cars parked on either side of the road in marked bays. The road has the split type speed hump, a driver has pulled up, and is letting their passengers out. I up to this point, because I am in the Chevrolet have been going over the humps carefully. So I have to pull out around the parked car, which is alongside the cars already in the bays. The black cab that was behind me at this point has decided to try, and go around me. Smart move not !
With luckily nothing coming the other way towards me, at least I could pull out further to block his way. Although the car is left hand drive I don't miss a thing, and will allways be aware of what a T**T might do by consantly checking the mirrors.
This was a licensed black cab, and if he had have gone past he would have been completely on the other side of a two way road. I should have got his number, and reported him to the public carriage office. I take it he also will not slow for the split type hump, but to try and overtake another driver like this, causes great annoyance, puts other people at risk, and how would he manage to explain it to the public carriage office, his insurers, or the police.
So actually speed humps are there to slow traffic, and it seems that they often cannot. It's like speed cameras you slow for them, and you don't want it to capture you on film, and yet you will find that some drivers will try and, overtake you in the marked off area of the camera. F****** muppets !
The drivers that tend to do this, will find out that doing this isn't on, at all ! [:(!]

uhn113x · Post by **uhn113x** » 24 Jan 2005, 20:54

I am surprised that a 1930s Standard was getting grounded - generally there is more ground clearance on cars from this era. Maybe the springs were tired.
Muppets? Nah, muppets are nice [}:)]

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 25 Jan 2005, 16:12

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by uhn113x

I am surprised that a 1930s Standard was getting grounded - generally there is more ground clearance on cars from this era. Maybe the springs were tired.
Muppets? Nah, muppets are nice [}:)]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Yes, that surprised me too ! Older cars do have better ground clearance. Other than tired springs, it might have one or two components which are lower, I.E. exhaust.
Although as a council can build it, with excess height, bad approach and departure angles etc. etc. They actually create these problems, pun intended. With proper regulation it could be avoided

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 26 Jan 2005, 00:36

For many years the Trades Union movement has been campaigning for the introduction of an offence of 'Cororate manslaughter' as the existing laws relating to manslaughter are beyond the abilities of the HSE and CPS to enforce. The Governments latest excuse for delaying the matter is that local Authority engineers might be liable for innappropriate speedhumps and other bits of daft road obstruction (otherwise known as traffic calming)
jeremy

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 26 Jan 2005, 05:53

They are meant to calm traffic.
 They don't tend to !
If anything they speed up ! 
They if anything, end up not calming the traffic/driver, but make them more irate, and drive more dangerously !

wilkobob · Post by **wilkobob** » 26 Jan 2005, 20:29

Where I used to live, there are two speed humps like mountains. When I had a BX, I would have to stick it on maximum height setting, else it got stuck. I think they are a joke. The rest of the speed humps in our area are useless as no one slows down for the (including me). When will the powers that be get the idea that they are a waste of time and money?!

Mosser · Post by **Mosser** » 27 Jan 2005, 15:10

There's some speed humps 3 roads away from me and i have found the optimum speed for these ones is 38mph, they are in a 30mph speed limit and i generally stick within the speed limits, but at these speed bumps i speed up as i approach each one then slow down afterwards, everyone else that knows them does exactly the same thing too, they seem to have created a localised speeding spot rather than slowing the traffic down on that particular road which never had a speeding problem anyway

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 27 Jan 2005, 15:20

Drivers are probably trying to make up for the perceived lost time, by being delayed by the speed hump !

turbolag · Post by **turbolag** » 28 Jan 2005, 19:48

I hate speed humps. They're the one thing that really gets my goat speed enforcement wise. there seems to be no set standard for them, they vary from the minor to the cliff-like. Careful drivers (who probably drove carefully anyway) slow down properly to avoid damage, the rest just carry on as before, only difference being they're airborne for much of the time.
I can't see the classic car owner winning. There was a famous case a few years back where some guy with a tricked out and lowered 'scort went as far as te European courts, and lost. I can't see a European court over turning it's own ruling, and whichever way a UK court decides it can't over-rule Brussells[:(!], except when applying the Geneva Covention or the European Convention on Human Rights[:D] As this classic car owner isn't a prisoner of war the former won't help him, and a speed hump doesn't contravene any article of the latter, so he stuffed.
Still, if folk had behaved properly with the loud pedal in the past then we wouldn't have them inflicted on us now[:(]