More thought should go into speed bumps
DURING my recent trip to Canada and Britain I was interested to learn that speed bumps had been declared non-productive because the extra pollution produced by the slowing, braking and accelerating vehicles was more of a health hazard than the actual speeding vehicles.
I remarked on this in one of my columns and received mixed reactions from readers. Two Tavern readers agreed that speed bumps were nothing more than a nuisance and should be abolished.
A third reader disagreed strongly. Speed bumps, he said, had made his part of the city a safer place.
Irresponsible maniacs had made life a misery by tearing through their street at homicidal speeds, endangering the lives of children and generally behaving like lunatics. Recently installed speed bumps had made their suburb a safer place to live in.
Well, I’m happy to hear that. Anything that makes the world a safer place should be welcomed.
I do believe, however, that many of the speed bumps in our part of the peninsula are installed without any regard to the law.
A civil engineer friend once sent me the official regulations for the installation of speed bumps, (I think they are referred to as “traffic calming devices”). Basically, a speed bump in a 60km/h area should be designed to be safe at 60km/h. You shouldn’t have to slow down to 30km/h in order to negotiate it without damage to your vehicle.
The regulation states exactly how long the speed bump should be and how high it should be in the middle. I believe these dimensions have been calculated scientifically by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. I have heard of several occasions in which motorists have taken shopping mall owners to court because their “freelance” speed bumps in car parks have damaged their cars’ suspension.
There are several roads along which I regularly travel, many of which have speed bumps on them.
As an exercise I try to travel at exactly the speed limit on these roads. Some of them are perfectly acceptable. The car does a little hop and we’re over.
Others are simply not acceptable. If I were to drive over them at the permitted speed I would probably crack my skull on the car’s roof and damage my bakkie’s shock absorbers.
Unacceptably sharp speed bumps simply make motorists angry and add to the suburban noise by the squeal of sudden braking and the revving of engines. They also add a great deal of air pollution.
The solution, as ever, is to know the law and enforce it. Legally constructed speed bumps should slow the traffic to the legal limit, (which we should be obeying in any case). If they cause road rage and pollution they’re being counter-productive.
Last Laugh
A police station commander was briefing a new recruit: “Constable,” he said, “in this job you will sometimes be faced with difficult decisions. What would you do, for example, if you were sent out to arrest your mother-in-law?”
The rookie thought for a moment and then said: “I’d call for back-up sir.”