Thursday 28th April 2005

New speed hump protects cars

Go slow and your chin spoiler is safe...

---

This one will trash your car

Auto Express reports this week that a new form of speed hump has been tested that won't trash your suspension and chin spoilers below certain speeds.

It's deformable, so if you keep below 20mph, it stays flat. Go faster, and it becomes rigid, turning into a standard speed hump. It works using an air-valve, so it seems likely that it could be adapted to work at other speeds.

It also squashes flat when heavy vehicles go over it, so buses, fire engines and the like won't suffer the bump. Inventor Graham Heeks said he wanted a way of not impeding the passage of emergency vehicles.

The City of London has seen the first trials and the local highways boss said it was the best he'd seen. No news on deployment, either there or elsewhere, yet, though.

• Auto Express story

[z_chromozone]

So, light weight agile sportscar, or bike and you are in for a bump. Kin great heavy 4X4, and the thing deflates allowing your high speed child killer to thunder along That'll make a difference on the school run.

Z

[cdp]

So what you want is one of these:

<img height="152" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" width="203" alt="Green goddess" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40829000/jpg/_40829383_greengoddess203.jpg" />

I gather the government plan to sell them off.

Antiquated suspension, steering, high c.o.g. and weight; Perfect for blasting round towns.

Alternatively there are some more modern vehicles on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=18307&item=4544525122&rd=1


>> Edited by cdp on Thursday 28th April 12:57

[chrisjl]

cdp said:

So what you want is one of these:

You can't paste raw html into messages. See the formatting guide linked from the new post page for how to do it.

[flamingm0]

If it has an air valve then it stands to reason it contains air? Would not something pointy serve to puncture it somewhat? Not that one would condone such action of course, these at least sound an improvement over current evil humps and other traffic enraging measures (tho preferably none).

[alicrozier]

Contrary to the article text it looks like it will still take off your spoiler - by the time your wheels are on it the spoiler is gone...

[BT52]

That's what I thought, if your wheels are on the hump then the problem is already over.
You hit the hump with the front chin spoiler before the wheels even start mounting it, so it can't work.

[rlk500]

Looking at the pictures it seems there is quite a long lead in before the hump. I assume that the pressure pad is in that section, so unless your splitter is miles out in front of the wheels then there is still a chance you may save it. At the end of the day it's got to be better than the current tank traps that adorn the roads......

[chimyellow]

If this is the same as one that I heard about a while back there is no pressure pad, it is the weight of the car (etc) that squeezes the air out through the valve. The valve regulates the speed at which the air can exit therefore if you go over it slowly all the air can get out in time but if you go over it fast then the air does not have a chance to get out leaving it as a noticable hump.
So as alicrozier points out, bye bye spoiler.
When something heavy goes over it there is enough weight to make the bit that the vehicle is not on balloon up (it is made out of a synthetic rubber) enough to make room for the displaced air therefore letting is pass without feeling the bump.

I think that I watch too much discovery channel!

[Byff]

Cordless drill will ensure a more rapid departure of air so you can customise the hump to suit your style of driving.

[sybaseian]

[Mystic Meg mode]

I can see someone with a very sharp implement........

[Shred-Head]

The fact is that there are much better ways of reducing vehicle speeds than humps but they are used because they're cheap!

If these things are expensive they just won't be used.

[peter450]

exactly y would the goverment care about looking after your car unless this thing costs 2p we'l be stuck with the old barrel load of cement poored into the middle of the road

[Vipers]

If, as we are led to believe, speed humps cause pollution, because we all slow down, then speed up, which is when cars produce the most pollution, are we still seeing more put in. I believe in the USA they have started to take them out due to the pollution problem they cause, and lets face it, nobody slows down until they get to the hump, so they are in my opionion, a waste of time and money anyway.

[cdp]

chrisjl said:

cdp said: So what you want is one of these: You can't paste raw html into messages. See the formatting guide linked from the new post page for how to do it.

Sorry about that, it worked on the preview.

[Balmoral Green]

So if I took it at speed in my great lump, maybe I could pop it

[D Fender]

Vipers said:

If, as we are led to believe, speed humps cause pollution, because we all slow down, then speed up, which is when cars produce the most pollution, are we still seeing more put in. I believe in the USA they have started to take them out due to the pollution problem they cause, and lets face it, nobody slows down until they get to the hump, so they are in my opionion, a waste of time and money anyway.

Don't they always quote a massive reduction in speeds on traffic calmed roads?














Something like 35 down to 25.














Average.














But the 35 was probably the steady cruising speed.














Whereas the 25 is the average of slowing down to 5mph to get over the bump........













And accelerating to 45 in between!

[AMG Merc]

So why a 20mph limit? If it's in a 30mph zone what right have they got to physically reduce your speed to 20?! Why not have the hump raise at 30mph (otherwise change the speed limit along the road instead and save the cost of the hump!).

[DavidPorche]

Have they considered fixing one of those devices which automatically cut speed same as the button F1 drivers hit on entering the pit lane.

Suppose every car in the country was equipped with one of those then a radio controlled trigger could set it off. That trigger could be activated at key signals and school zones by any regular GPS device....

[DavidPorche]

Obviously that device would also have to be easily removable, customizable and portable to any open source device.

[Vipers]

Auto Express said

"The calming device also squashes flat when heavy vehicles pass over it - a deliberate effect to allow ambulances, fire engines and buses swift passage"

Are bus drivers exempt from observing the 20 mph speed limit?????