Road humps cause speeding: survey

We compensate for delays, finds research

By PH Staff / Monday, 27 June 2005 / Loading comments

Speed humps cause speeding?

Road humps cause drivers to break behave badly, according to a recent survey. And most are annoyed by the measures while only a third think they work.

Two-thirds of drivers (67 per cent) told researchers for windscreen experts survey author Autoglass that their response to road safety measures is to flout the Highway Code elsewhere.

After being forced to slow down by traffic calming measures, four in five (84 per cent) break the speed limit, seven in ten drive aggressively (72 per cent) or jump amber lights (71 per cent) and two in three will cut up another driver (68 per cent) or use rat runs (67 per cent). As a result, one in five (20 per cent) said they have had an accident of some sort. A quarter (25 per cent) have had a near miss.

Autoglass boss Nigel Doggett said, "The effectiveness of traffic calming measures in improving safety at danger spots has been clearly proven but it seems they are having an adverse effect on drivers' behaviour elsewhere.

"This suggests that more needs to be done to ensure that drivers understand that road safety measures are genuinely working to keep them safe, not to inconvenience them. They certainly must not be seen as a justification for risk-taking elsewhere."

Four in five (79 per cent) drivers say they feel inconvenienced by road safety measures, six in ten (57 per cent) say they feel irritated and 31 per cent say they're a cause of stress.

They say road safety measures are as annoying as being burgled or robbed (44 per cent) or having their car broken into (54 per cent). By comparison, a third (35 per cent) say they feel safer because of them and one in five (20 per cent) say they feel protected.

In justifying their risky responses, drivers claim that road safety measures add 17 minutes to a typical journey.

Doggett said, "It seems that telling drivers to slow down or drive carefully in one place only makes them determined to speed up or take risks elsewhere.

"They then appear to exaggerate or over-estimate the inconvenience and lost time caused by traffic calming in order to justify their actions."

Autoglass has sent its 'Rebel Drivers' report to the Government and is calling for more government-provided education. Doggett said: "We believe more persuasive arguments need to be made for traffic calming measures. If drivers continue to rebel against them, they will only create new danger spots and the stark option is that calming measures may have to be extended even further."

Of course, it might make a tad more sense if such measures were applied only in areas where they might work -- assuming that the survey more than just hokum.