It’s official – speed bumps are killing the planet.
Research from the AA has shown speed humps double carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption by forcing drivers to brake and accelerate repeatedly.
The AA’s research shows a car travelling a steady 30mph on a speed-bump-free road manages to achieve 58mpg – on the same road travelling at between 20mph and 30mph with speed bumps the driver only manages 31mpg.
Reducing speed limits to 20mph will also harm the environment – cars are designed to be most efficient at speeds above 30mph, and lowering the speed to 20mph will result in a 10 per cent rise in emissions.
The AA has now called for the removal of speed bumps and for average speed-check cameras to replace them.
What do you think about the ‘sleeping policemen’? Troublesome hazard or life-saving necessity?
Auto Trader Blog RSS Feed
The ideal solution, researchers say, would be to strictly enforce maximum speed limits and do away with the speed bumps altogether.
I used to have a Lotus Elise and it was a complete nightmare navigating speed humps. Living in London where there are far to many, it got to the point where I would take the bus rather than take the car out. Sold the car as I couldn’t enjoy it. Do people think that the idea of “chipping” a car to restict in certain area’s is a good one? i.e. a signal is sent to the car and doesn’t allow it to go over a certain speed.
What people don’t realise about those smaller speed humps is that by straddling them they are damaging their tyres. The pressure on the inner sidewalls of the tyre is more than they are designed to cope with and can gradually lead to a weakening of the sidewall. In time you could end up having a blowout, a pretty scary prospect at high speed. This is a problem that’s slowing starting to be recognised by motoring organisations.
So not only are they bad for the panet, they could also be causing fatal crashes.
What is the standard width of a width restrictor, is there one !?
Imagine the traffic flow with driver of 4x4s getting wedged in these restrictors all over the country!
Also width restrictors will still cause slowing down and speeding up of traffic, so no solution to the emissions issue there
Speed bumps are a total waste of time, maybe around areas such as schools etc but on one road where i live a main road, they have them like every 100 meters and it is a right pain.
I think around schools maybe but not on main roads, and the older ones are the worse all they do is put out more emissions, break your cars suspension, cause climate change, and more…
So, speed humps are put in to avoid killing a small number of children every year, and instead result in posioning the entire community they are installed in. Class!
What about those miniature bumps, those that buses can pass over them and not annoy their passengers? Most cars can straddle these too without too much intrusion, so they don’t even act as much of a deterrent.
Speed bumps don’t really impede drivers, who’ll normally just accelerate once they’ve gone over them and end up travelling faster than they would’ve done between them. They don’t stop joyriders either, who still blast through the area at top speed, smash over the humps and then plough the stricken car into whatever happens to be in the way.
What we need to do is remove these ridiculous things. If we need traffic calming then use width restrictors instead. I’m not sure speed cameras would work as drivers tend to be preoccupied by their speed, which in turn distracts them from what is in front of them. Width restrictors with big, heavy bollards would be far safer.
Plus I think parents could do with teaching their kids about road safety. I’m always telling mine and they seem to have got the message.
there are 15 humps in a mile and a half when 1 want to go shoping.i am disabled with a back injury ,if i travel at only 10 mph it is murder.
Fantastic new. not only are they bad for the environment they also knacker your cars suspension. My 3.0diesel Vectra required suspension parts on its first MOT probably caused by speed humps galore in Plymouth.
I say remove them now.