Speed Humps

scott135 said:

hit the white painted chevron on the inclined approach to the
hump, and my front wheel just skewed from under me

That'll be the nice fresh slippery white paint, you'd probably have
been OK on the unpainted bit. You have my sympathy.
In my street it is also a 20MPH zone but they've put in cushions rather
than humps so cycles can still zoom up the middle, apart from when my
youngest is on the trailgator and insists on going over the bumps just
for the fun of it!

One for the local press.

Following on from scott135's message. . .

Quoted message said:

My local Highways department has seen fit to create new speed humps in
my own small housing estate. It's already subject to a 20mph limit but
they obviously felt the urge to create some new and exciting hazards.
Now, I've never previously perceived speed humps to be particularly
hazardous but last night, on returning home from the office, in the
rain, travelling at around 14mph, I approached this hump in a straight
line, hit the white painted chevron on the inclined approach to the
hump, and my front wheel just skewed from under me resulting in a
rather painful slide of some 15 feet on wet tarmac. God, my right side
is bl**dy painful this morning... I'm still absolutely convinced I hit
the hump at 90 degrees, otherwise I'd have better understood why the
front wheel went right out from under me.

So now, the nicely white painted speed hump is ever so slightly tinted
pink with my blood. Grrgh!

--
PETER FOX Not the same since the bra business went bust
[email hidden]
2 Tees Close, Witham, Essex.
Gravity beer in Essex <http://www.eminent.demon.co.uk>

Quoted message said:

My local Highways department has seen fit to create new speed humps in
my own small housing estate. It's already subject to a 20mph limit but
they obviously felt the urge to create some new and exciting hazards.

I would gladly swap speed bumps and other traffic calming for more cameras,
and I'm saying this as a driver.

Mark Thompson said:

Quoted message said:

My local Highways department has seen fit to create new speed humps in
my own small housing estate. It's already subject to a 20mph limit but
they obviously felt the urge to create some new and exciting hazards.

I would gladly swap speed bumps and other traffic calming for more cameras,
and I'm saying this as a driver.

I agree. Cameras are only campaigned against by those who think it is
their right to speed. Speed humps punish the innocent. But, as they
say, prevension is better than cure - like you can stop the spread of
the flu virus by banning anyone from breathing.

David Lloyd

Sirius631 said:

Mark Thompson said:

Quoted message said:

My local Highways department has seen fit to create new speed humps in
my own small housing estate. It's already subject to a 20mph limit but
they obviously felt the urge to create some new and exciting hazards.

I would gladly swap speed bumps and other traffic calming for more cameras,
and I'm saying this as a driver.

I agree. Cameras are only campaigned against by those who think it is
their right to speed.

Wrong. Some of those who campaign against speed cameras do so because
they believe that the road safety emphasis should be on making the roads
safer and not on punishing drivers for a victimless 'crime', or even
simply raising revenue.

As we saw from the recent "contributory factors" report from the DfT
speeding was a recorded factor in only 5% of injury accidents. OTOH,
speed which was excessive for the conditions, but within the speed limit
(so not noticed by speed cameras), was recorded as a factor in 12% of
accidents, and following too close (not noticed by speed cameras) for
7%. Driver error (overshot junction, wrong signal, failed to look
properly etc.) was recorded as a factor against *66%* of all injury
accidents.

As we have also seen in recent reports, those signs which flash "slow
down", or whatever, are more effective than speed cameras at enforcing
speed limits anyway.

--
Matt B

Matt B said:

As we have also seen in recent reports, those signs which flash "slow
down", or whatever, are more effective than speed cameras at enforcing
speed limits anyway.

http://217.118.128.203/store/report_detail.asp?srid=2699&pid=211

http://217.118.128.203/store/downloadreport.asp?id=2699

http://www.pacts.org.uk/policy/briefings/vms.htm

pk

Matt B said the following on 04/10/2006 14:11:

Quoted message said:

As we have also seen in recent reports, those signs which flash "slow
down", or whatever, are more effective than speed cameras at enforcing
speed limits anyway.

Are you serious? We've just had some installed locally, and drivers did
slow down when seeing them. For about a month. Now they are just
totally ignored. Mind you, this might be something to do with the fact
that they flash "50" in a 50 limit, when you're doing 45! They also
flash "Slow down" approaching various roundabouts, but well before there
is actually any need to reduce speed. There is bags of room to gently
slow down to a stop well after the warning signs.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

"Sirius631" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

<snip><snip>

Speed humps punish the innocent. But, as they

Quoted message said:

say, prevension is better than cure - like you can stop the spread of
the flu virus by banning anyone from breathing.

David Lloyd

And being in a high risk category ( and 69 as well) there are still no flu
jabs available unless you pay some £20 in a shop!!!!!

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

p.k. said:

Matt B said:

As we have also seen in recent reports, those signs which flash "slow
down", or whatever, are more effective than speed cameras at enforcing
speed limits anyway.

http://217.118.128.203/store/report_detail.asp?srid=2699&pid=211
http://217.118.128.203/store/downloadreport.asp?id=2699
http://www.pacts.org.uk/policy/briefings/vms.htm

Yes, thanks for saving me the look-up :-)

--
Matt B

Paul Boyd said:

Matt B said the following on 04/10/2006 14:11:

Quoted message said:

As we have also seen in recent reports, those signs which flash "slow
down", or whatever, are more effective than speed cameras at enforcing
speed limits anyway.

Are you serious?

I didn't write the reports ;-)

Quoted message said:

We've just had some installed locally, and drivers did
slow down when seeing them. For about a month. Now they are just
totally ignored.

Contradicts the findings in one of the reports (TRL548) which says:
"There is no evidence that in time, drivers become less
responsive to the signs, even over three years."

Quoted message said:

Mind you, this might be something to do with the fact
that they flash "50" in a 50 limit, when you're doing 45!

Possibly the result of a blasé selection of message, settings and
location, by someone who doesn't understand, or doesn't care about
actual road safety.

Quoted message said:

They also
flash "Slow down" approaching various roundabouts, but well before there
is actually any need to reduce speed.

As above.

Quoted message said:

There is bags of room to gently
slow down to a stop well after the warning signs.

Like the matrix signs on motorways that say 'T||', or '50', 5 miles
before the hazard, and they wonder why everyone ignores them.

--
Matt B

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sirius631" <[email hidden]>
Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 1:41 PM
Subject: Re: Speed Humps

Quoted message said:

Mark Thompson said:

Quoted message said:

My local Highways department has seen fit to create new speed humps in
my own small housing estate. It's already subject to a 20mph limit but
they obviously felt the urge to create some new and exciting hazards.

I would gladly swap speed bumps and other traffic calming for more

cameras,

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and I'm saying this as a driver.

I agree. Cameras are only campaigned against by those who think it is
their right to speed. Speed humps punish the innocent. But, as they
say, prevension is better than cure - like you can stop the spread of
the flu virus by banning anyone from breathing.

David Lloyd

Again I agree too - Speed cameras should work as a sort of voluntary tax
with an acsending fee for re-offenders - and then plough all the money in to
the NHS to heel the roads wounded!. All speed bumps do is increase fuel &
maintenance costs!

colin

!!Apologies to SIrius631, I may have inadvertantly clogged up his inbox
instead of the group - more beatings required - REPLY GROUP NOT SENDER!!!
sorry.

Colin said:

Again I agree too - Speed cameras should work as a sort of voluntary
tax with an acsending fee for re-offenders - and then plough all the
money in to the NHS to heel the roads wounded!. All speed bumps do is
increase fuel & maintenance costs!

A friend of mine would be most unhappy if Merton (the Sargasso sea of road
humps) ever took them out - he runs a repair garage and does very nice
business on repair/replacement of shock absorbers, suspensions, tires worn
because of faulty tracking etc etc - far more than he used to do before the
humps went in.

Which does of course imply that there are more unsafe cars being driven
around because of road hump damage.

pk

"p.k." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Colin said:

Again I agree too - Speed cameras should work as a sort of voluntary
tax with an acsending fee for re-offenders - and then plough all the
money in to the NHS to heel the roads wounded!. All speed bumps do is
increase fuel & maintenance costs!

A friend of mine would be most unhappy if Merton (the Sargasso sea of road
humps) ever took them out - he runs a repair garage and does very nice
business on repair/replacement of shock absorbers, suspensions, tires worn
because of faulty tracking etc etc - far more than he used to do before

the

Quoted message said:

humps went in.

Which does of course imply that there are more unsafe cars being driven
around because of road hump damage.

pk

There is high curb near a bus stop near where i used to live, there is
parking for access to the local shops just off the road. The garage near it
does a good trade in rescuing bottomed out cars who have attempted to leave
the car park the 'quick way' !

colin

scott135 wrote on 04/10/2006 08:29 +0100:

Quoted message said:

My local Highways department has seen fit to create new speed humps in
my own small housing estate. It's already subject to a 20mph limit but
they obviously felt the urge to create some new and exciting hazards.
Now, I've never previously perceived speed humps to be particularly
hazardous but last night, on returning home from the office, in the
rain, travelling at around 14mph, I approached this hump in a straight
line, hit the white painted chevron on the inclined approach to the
hump, and my front wheel just skewed from under me resulting in a
rather painful slide of some 15 feet on wet tarmac. God, my right side
is bl**dy painful this morning... I'm still absolutely convinced I hit
the hump at 90 degrees, otherwise I'd have better understood why the
front wheel went right out from under me.

So now, the nicely white painted speed hump is ever so slightly tinted
pink with my blood. Grrgh!

Commiserations but write to the Council and inform them of the danger.
I find speed humps at night on a bike a real danger. The full width
ones knock you around a bit but the really bad ones are the square ones
with quite steep sides. Its only the white paint that picks them out
from the tarmac and if you hit the side unexpectedly it can throw you

--
Tony

"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci

p.k. said:

A friend of mine would be most unhappy if Merton (the Sargasso sea of road
humps) ever took them out - he runs a repair garage and does very nice
business on repair

Conversely, since they put the speed cushions on our road there's a lot
fewer smashed headlights and general denting caused by idiots trying to
go too fast around the junction outside my house.

I'd guess that most damage caused by humps is because folks have gone
over them too fast anyway

POHB said:

p.k. wrote:

I'd guess that most damage caused by humps is because folks have gone
over them too fast anyway

Some, certainly, but by no means all.

pk

Matt B said the following on 04/10/2006 15:20:

Quoted message said:

Like the matrix signs on motorways that say 'T||', or '50', 5 miles
before the hazard, and they wonder why everyone ignores them.

Or the ones that say "End". End of what? I didn't see a beginning!!

Or as happened last weekend - a lorry on the hard shoulder having it's
wheel changed, with a police car sat behind for protection. Half a mile
further on:- "50" flashing in the centre reservation. Having the
warning *before* the hazard might have been more useful!

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

On 04/10/2006 16:04, POHB said,

Quoted message said:

I'd guess that most damage caused by humps is because folks have gone
over them too fast anyway

"Most" maybe, but there are a lot of humps that feel as if you're
driving over a kerb. Doing that regularly will cause more than usual
wear and tear on suspension.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

POHB said:

In my street it is also a 20MPH zone but they've put in cushions rather
than humps so cycles can still zoom up the middle, apart from when my
youngest is on the trailgator and insists on going over the bumps just
for the fun of it!

I *hate* speed cushions. There are some on a road near me that features
in my evening commute.

If the road is wide enough to have 3 cushions across the road with at
least 1m gap between them, so that one can cycle between cushions in
something close to the primary riding position, then they'd probably be
OK. In this case, though, each set of cushions consists of 2 cushions
positioned either between pavement build-outs or adjacent to car parking
spaces. This leaves a cyclist with 3 choices:

1) Ride to the left of the cushion, which means riding either in the
gutter or within inches of parked cars.

2) Ride along the centre line of the road. This is my usual technique,
but it takes a lot of nerve when a motorist coming the other way wants
to put his right-hand wheels in exactly the same place in order to
straddle the cushion on his side of the road.

3) Ride over the speed cushion. Not pleasant, not good for the bike,
and pretty dangerous when it's wet.

I *really* hate speed cushions.

--
Danny Colyer <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Bristol to Bath by unicycle: <http://www.bristoltobathonaunicycle.co.uk>
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine