Overtaking at a speed bump
Discussion
Surely normal road rules apply?
I overtook a Ferrari having to crawl over speed bumps. He was having to literally crawl down from 30 to a near standstill, so after a couple, I mirror, signalled, manoeuvred and passed him sensibly. No drama and off I went.
The issue here is that speed humps tend to be in built up areas. Parked cars, junctions, children playing with kittens. To make a traditional overtake look sensible maybe tricky. To do the same over speed humps is really pushing boundaries if you were to be spotted.
I overtook a Ferrari having to crawl over speed bumps. He was having to literally crawl down from 30 to a near standstill, so after a couple, I mirror, signalled, manoeuvred and passed him sensibly. No drama and off I went.
The issue here is that speed humps tend to be in built up areas. Parked cars, junctions, children playing with kittens. To make a traditional overtake look sensible maybe tricky. To do the same over speed humps is really pushing boundaries if you were to be spotted.
supermono said:
There is a school of thought whereby sometimes residents may not be sure their obstacle course is having any effect. Sometimes folks will give a friendly toot-toot as they traverse the speed hump in the small hours, just to let them know 
Specially if you happen to know which house the local busybody that campaigned for them lives in....LoonR1 said:
They don't. If a speed bump is there then it must be possible to go over it at the speed limit without damaging your car. If that isn't possible then you can have it removed via an appeal to the local council. Although IME what tends to happen is the speed limit is reduced
That can't be so. Where is that rule enshrined?rb5er said:
HantsRat said:
Traffic calming bumps are not just put there for no reason.
The reason is usually so people don't exceed the speed limit. Speed bumps go way past that and stop many motorists getting anywhere near to even reaching the limit.When the London Borough of Barnet removed all its humpy traffic calming road obstructions the number accidents fell by 15% in the first six months. If that result was treated in the same way as the early speed camera trials, there would be no speed bumps anywhere in the country by now.
PHers following the blue light threads where discussion takes place aorund emergency vehicles being delayed by a few seconds if a car is slow to move over or violate a red light will be interested in the research showing how a fire engine is delayed by ~10 seconds per hump. A similar result for Ambulance journeys with injured patients on board saw transit times doubled. We don't tend to see research like that because it's either not funded or kept quiet due to obtaining the 'wrong' result, at least until the right result can be fiddlefactored.
A Boulder (Colorado) analysis showed that 85 people are likely to die from delays caused to to emergency vehicles by speed bumps for every one life that is claimed to be saved by them, and this outcome ignores results from e.g. Barnet or it would be much worse. Home owners happy about living in a humpy area might like to count the number of speed bumps between their home and the nearest fire station and the nearest A&E hospital.
Joeguard1990 said:
I would have no issue with someone overtaking me if they felt that I was holding them up while trying not to damage my car
The maximum legal height of a speed hump is 100mm, but the Department for Transport has a parallel view which is also rarely heard:DfT said:
To limit the possibility of grounding, investigations suggest that road humps generally should not exceed 75mm in height.
At that height overtaking would be facilitated as well, where it's safe to do so, allowing drivers to make safe progress where a low or lowered car is taking a long time to clear the obstructions.LoonR1 said:
They don't. If a speed bump is there then it must be possible to go over it at the speed limit without damaging your car. If that isn't possible then you can have it removed via an appeal to the local council. Although IME what tends to happen is the speed limit is reduced
Ha. The road approaching my mum's street is already a 20mph limit, and has half a dozen steeply angled tall speed humps along the way. In every car I've owned in the last 10 years (from Peugeot 405 estates through brand new Skoda Superbs to vans etc) I've had to slow to first gear on the clutch to get over them, and still scraped the bottoms out. Every hump has deep gouge marks from residents scraping over them. I emailed the council to ask what height they were supposed to be, what height they actually were, and where I could submit any claims for damage as they were impossible to traverse safely even at 2mph never mind 20mph. I got a reply back from the 'Head of Highways Engineering' or somesuch, stating they were 'formed by hand and not measured' but that the council wouldn't be inspecting them or amending them. If cars are scraping on them then it's the car's problem not theirs. The council will not be held liable for any damages. End of discussion. He refused to reply further.
Correction to Barnet data with apologies: in the first six months following speed bump removal it was casualties that fell by 15%.
The accident rate improved 3x better than originally stated, as accidents were down 45% overall, not 15%.
Motorcycle accidents fell by just under 20% which was 4x the London average for the same period.
The accident rate improved 3x better than originally stated, as accidents were down 45% overall, not 15%.
Motorcycle accidents fell by just under 20% which was 4x the London average for the same period.
M6L11 said:
I got a reply back from the 'Head of Highways Engineering' or somesuch, stating they were 'formed by hand and not measured' but that the council wouldn't be inspecting them or amending them. If cars are scraping on them then it's the car's problem not theirs. The council will not be held liable for any damages. End of discussion. He refused to reply further.
If they don't know or care what size they are-Http://www.hss.com/hire/p/fwd-rv-vibrating-plate-d...
LoonR1 said:
DeaconFrost said:
They would literally have to remove them all round here! Half the village is a no go zone if you own anything vaguely nice or lowered :-(
Then get an architect or someone to inspect them and appeal it. I've got an M3 and you'd be amazed just how easy some bumps are to get over. The speed cushion blobs in the road I just drive straight over and don't slow down. People think they've got a lot lessClearance than they actually have.
All that jazz said:
You might not think they're causing any damage, but wait til you get some new tyres and have your wheels balanced.. Flying over those speed cushions at speed in something with wide wheels wrecks the inside rim as that's the part you're slamming into them at 30mph+.
FFS. Read my post again. I said I drive over them. I did not say "flying" I didn't say "30mph+" and I'm certainly not "slamming" into them. Take your hyperbole hat off and try to understand what's written down before going off on a mechanical sympathy b
ks rant. I drive over them at c30 or c20 depending on the speed limit. I've never had an issue with any of the cars I've owned in the past decade or so doing this.
BertBert said:
That can't be so. Where is that rule enshrined?
Can't find it but it sort of worked near me. They reduced the bloody speed likit though Speed humps are a max of 10cm at their highest point and recommended to be 6.5-7.5 at most.
The way people talk you'd think these were the North face of the Eiger that they're traversing.
LoonR1 said:
Can't find it but it sort of worked near me. They reduced the bloody speed likit though
Speed humps are a max of 10cm at their highest point and recommended to be 6.5-7.5 at most.
The way people talk you'd think these were the North face of the Eiger that they're traversing.
To be fair it depends on the car. PH tends to have a few folks with tasty and usually low cars with hardish suspension. Just because none of your cars have fitted this description doesn't mean there's no problem. Imagine a low car. Imagine driving it at the speed limit over a tall speed hump (shock horror councils install bigger ones than the toothless recommendation).Speed humps are a max of 10cm at their highest point and recommended to be 6.5-7.5 at most.
The way people talk you'd think these were the North face of the Eiger that they're traversing.
Now do you begin to understand? Good
LoonR1 said:
All that jazz said:
You might not think they're causing any damage, but wait til you get some new tyres and have your wheels balanced.. Flying over those speed cushions at speed in something with wide wheels wrecks the inside rim as that's the part you're slamming into them at 30mph+.
FFS. Read my post again. I said I drive over them. I did not say "flying" I didn't say "30mph+" and I'm certainly not "slamming" into them.LoonR1 said:
I just drive straight over and don't slow down.
For a typical speed cushion that means the inside half of your wheels is indeed slamming into the edges of them which won't be doing them any good. Unless you're running 60 profile tyres on your M3 which is highly unlikely (probably more like 35 or 40) then there's no way the tyres will be able to absorb the impact and your wheels will take the brunt of it.
HantsRat said:
Why do you want to? What's the harm in waiting 2 more seconds?
It's bloody irritating if you have to follow some cretin who's lowered their car so much that they can barely make it over without ripping the exhaust off. It might only be a few seconds on one speed bump, but there are many roads with numerous speed bumps within a short distance.All that jazz said:
You might not think they're causing any damage, but wait til you get some new tyres and have your wheels balanced.. Flying over those speed cushions at speed in something with wide wheels wrecks the inside rim as that's the part you're slamming into them at 30mph+.
There's no damage to the inside of the rims my car after many years of doing this. Possibly not such a good idea on some quality German marques that come with super fragile chocolate wheels and stiff run flats.Edited by Mr2Mike on Tuesday 7th July 13:06
Totally depends on car. Landrover...I don't really slow much just enough to stop bouncing up.
However when I had the GT3 I would be at 1mph diagonally crossing the road and still ground on some. That had 95mm odd clearance and a long overhang. I've seen some speed bumps which I physically would not have been able to get over....
However when I had the GT3 I would be at 1mph diagonally crossing the road and still ground on some. That had 95mm odd clearance and a long overhang. I've seen some speed bumps which I physically would not have been able to get over....
HantsRat said:
What's the harm in waiting 2 more seconds?
So you say it's ok to overtake between speed bumps, but not at them. Even though the car in front may accelerate to the speed limit between the bumps making the overtake impossible.
Meaning that the wait will be longer than 2 more seconds.
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