Wednesday 17th May 2006

Speed humps get thumbs down

Town in S Glos campaign removes speed humps

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Speed humps banished

Speed humps in the town of Yate in South Gloucestershire are to be removed after a successful campaign by local residents.

In 2003 South Gloucestershire Council installed speed humps on Shireway in the town after just 38 people responded favourably to a consultation. About 4500 people live in the immediate area.

Following intensive campaigning by residents fed up with the humps, a second consultation received 435 responses of which only around 60 were in favour of the speed humps remaining. Over 200 people attended a public meeting organised by the council.

Cllr. Pat Hockey (Lib Dem), the Committee Member responsible for Planning, Transportation & Strategic Environment has been forced to execute a 'U' turn and order the removal of the humps as a matter of priority. The council will instead install a pedestrian crossing and vehicle-activated speed limit warning signs.

ABD local co-ordinator for South Gloucestershire, Paul Hanmore said: "This just goes to show what can be achieved when all the local people seeking a sensible solution work in concert."

ABD Policy Director Mark McArthur-Christie said: "All over the country we have seen examples of speed humps and traffic calming being imposed, justified by consultations that have failed to consult all those affected. We welcome South Gloucestershire's decision to move away from stone-age traffic calming and towards better, more effective and modern solutions. We're delighted that the Council has now listened to residents. This is a real result for road safety."

[kevin ritson]

They probably got fed up with people hitting the horn and accelerating between them

Either that or the bills for suspension components...

[supermono]

Thank goodness the silent majority are becoming less silent. Hopefully this kind of thing will happen more often so these out of touch sandalists with nothing better to do than ruin our roads with politically correct nonsense will become outnumbered.

Oh, and we'll get safer, more productive roads into the bargain!

SM

[HUGE]

A small reminder that we DO live in DEMOCRACY......now if only we can Bliar and his re-shuffled pack of jokers to take note......

[pasthim]

If I had done something like the Council did initially, i.e. undertaking all that cost and effort with such a tiny response from 'customers' I'd be looking at my P45. Putting them in and taking them out costs all the residents because it is they who paid taxes for this in the first place.

The only part I am not convinced about is that people often think of their own inconvenience in driving over the humps, slowing down, speeding up and are highly likey to say 'get rid of them' until someone gets run over by a speeding car. Are they saying they'd like Scameras installed instead?

[aston67]

well done

next traffic light stupidly not synchronized

next "monkey left free to type on computer" traffic warnings on motorways

next speed cameras

next artificial road bottlenecks

next bus lanes

next London road "congestion" charge

[Yugguy]

pasthim said:

. Are they saying they'd like Scameras installed instead?

Yes, in an urban 30 zone if it's a choice between humps and cameras I'll take cameras.

[madbadger]

Yugguy said:

pasthim said: . Are they saying they'd like Scameras installed instead? Yes, in an urban 30 zone if it's a choice between humps and cameras I'll take cameras.

Me too.

You can pass a scamera at 30. Humps need to be taken at walking pace which involves a great risk of being rear ended.

Would prefer neither, though.

[TripleS]

Yugguy said:

pasthim said: . Are they saying they'd like Scameras installed instead? Yes, in an urban 30 zone if it's a choice between humps and cameras I'll take cameras.

Me too, every time.

To my mind it is fundamentally wrong for a 30 mph zone to have humps that can not be negotiated at that speed (in suitable circumstances) without undue discomfort or risk of car damage.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[mini_ralf]

Just wish that they would do that in other areas. I've lost count of the number of times I've grounded out on speed ramps when doing a paltry 5mph. And I only have a Cooper S.

Did here a story concerning ambulance staff. They hate speed ramps because if they need to feed a needle into a vein when moving, going over a speed ramp is a good way of missing the vein and hitting something else.

>> Edited by mini_ralf on Wednesday 17th May 10:30

[trevorh]

This is good news.
It would be even better if they suggested that the locals use their shiney new pedestrian crossing when it arrives.

[timnorthlondon]

Speed camera's are better than road humps.

Having a touch up done to my bonnet soon - looked on the underside of the front bumper at the weekend - speed bump scratched to bits....... and i drive slowly over them.
New boxster bumper probably required soon!

if speed bumps were all a regulation same size it wouldn't be so bad. thought they weren't allowed to be taller than 10 cm's above road - rubbish!

[dcb]

mini_ralf said:

I've lost count of the number of times I've grounded out on speed ramps when doing a paltry 5mph. And I only have a Cooper S.

This might be stating the bleeding obvious, but if you have
that much trouble with them, have you tried driving over them
in a different way ?

I usually drive over them so that the wheels on one side
of the car touches them, so that only one side of the car
lifts up.

That way I avoid the chance of grounding.

[mondeoman]

dcb said:

mini_ralf said: I've lost count of the number of times I've grounded out on speed ramps when doing a paltry 5mph. And I only have a Cooper S. This might be stating the bleeding obvious, but if you have that much trouble with them, have you tried driving over them in a different way ? I usually drive over them so that the wheels on one side of the car touches them, so that only one side of the car lifts up. That way I avoid the chance of grounding.

The road isn't supposed to be a fecking obstacle course!!

[s2art]

dcb said:

mini_ralf said: I've lost count of the number of times I've grounded out on speed ramps when doing a paltry 5mph. And I only have a Cooper S. This might be stating the bleeding obvious, but if you have that much trouble with them, have you tried driving over them in a different way ? I usually drive over them so that the wheels on one side of the car touches them, so that only one side of the car lifts up. That way I avoid the chance of grounding.

Depends on the speedhump, not possible most of the time as its continuous or parked cars and oncoming traffic prevent avoidance.

[mrmaggit]

We had them installed near us. At the residents meetong (including the local MP), there were 4 people out of over 150 in favour, everybody else didn't want them.

So we got them. We moved.

[Dr S]

timnorthlondon said:

Having a touch up done to my bonnet soon - looked on the underside of the front bumper at the weekend - speed bump scratched to bits....... and i drive slowly over them. New boxster bumper probably required soon!

Same with my old Boxster. Got terrible scratches from speed bumps at front bumper even when going really slow. Could have afforded lots of speeding tickets for the price of having the scratches repaired... New Carrera S is much better in this respect. No scratches so far...

[Al 450]

Having been carted away by ambulance before with a broken leg, I can only imagine the pain and discomfort had the ambulance had to negotiate some of the speed bumps in my town. Not nice.

Also a delay in emergency services response times due to speed humps installed by the council amounts to criminal negligence in my opinion.

I wonder how many people die/get murdered/have their house burn down because speed humps delayed response times...

[blunder13]

I agree with traffic calming in certain areas but I disagree with speed bumps!

They don't affect the right people:

They slow down good drivers who care about their cars.

Emergency vehicles find them hard to negotiate. Imagine an ambulance with a back injury patient, how will a speed bump help?

They DON'T slow down idiots in company cars and vans.

They DON'T slow down someone who has just stolen a car.

So you see the good drivers who would have seen the child crossing, get hindered and the lad who has just stolen a car is doing 60mph anyway!!
Chicanes are a much better option, they slow everyone down but allow emergency vehicles to get through easier (when people see them, different matter).

Rant over...

[gingerprince]

These things are supposed to be for safety? The vehicles that can do most harm to pedestrians - large vehicles like Range Rovers etc al are not affected at all and speed on by. How is this safe?

Theres a load in a 20mph zone near me. In the TVR I have to virtually stop to cross them - infurating drivers behind me and also risking being rear-ended by someone not concentrating.

But the ambulance argument should be evidence enough.

[mini_ralf]

dcb said:

mini_ralf said: I've lost count of the number of times I've grounded out on speed ramps when doing a paltry 5mph. And I only have a Cooper S. This might be stating the bleeding obvious, but if you have that much trouble with them, have you tried driving over them in a different way ? I usually drive over them so that the wheels on one side of the car touches them, so that only one side of the car lifts up. That way I avoid the chance of grounding.

I've tried that.. And you're right. It's just that I hate doing it that way! Daft? Yes.