Road Access for Disabled Americans

= new, = less new, = least new

Engineering Information

Overviews

• "Road humps can damage houses", Jonathan Leake, The Sunday Times, London, December 28, 1997
  "Government research has found they [humps] increase noise, raise pollution and can damage nearby properties by generating powerful underground vibrations."
  "The studies, by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), follow criticism that road humps cause millions of pounds worth of damage to cars and inflict pain on drivers and passengers with disabilities."
• "Traffic Calming Versus Safety", Canada Safety Council, 1999
  "...turning the road into an obstacle course creates frustration, leading to dangerous moving violations."
• Drawbacks of speed humps,
  Speed Humps in the City of Roseville, California, undated
  1. Response time for emergency vehicles increases...
  2. Some motorists swerve around the speed humps, necessitating the installation of metal posts on both sides of the speed humps. However, many of these posts do not allow sufficient sidewalk width for wheelchairs.
  3. Some motorists increase speed between speed humps to make up for lost time.
  4. Numerous speed humps are necessary on a long stretch of road. This can frustrate motorists and cause them to drive over the speed humps at 30-35 mph because at this speed, many vehicles can absorb the impact of the speed humps with little discomfort to the driver.
  5. There is increased noise at speed hump locations due to vehicles slowing and accelerating.
  6. Speed humps cause traffic to divert to parallel streets.
  7. Vehicles experience increased wear-and-tear.

Risk Management Analysis Studies

• Traffic calming devices / Accident rate
  "Can traffic calming devices be expected to reduce the accident rate per head of population or per unit distance driven?"
  Gerald Wilde, Onterio, Canada, 1998 / Traffic Safety Summit '98, Kananaskis, Alberta
• Impact of slowing EMS on cardiac arrest calls
  "Deaths Expected from Delayed Emergency Response Due to Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation"
  Ronald R. Bowman, Boulder, Colorado, April 3, 1997
  [RADA: This link is also included on our Fire & EMS page.]

City Policies & Reports

• Smooth roadways - policy statements
  • Missouri City, Texas
    "The State of Texas does not recognize speed humps an official traffic control device. This decision is based on various studies which have all raised concern about the potential dangers of speed humps. State and Local Governments can be held liable for injuries caused by speed humps. For these reasons, the City of Missouri City does not use speed humps on public streets."
  • Madison, Wisconsin
    "Speed bumps are a challenge to the daredevil, a hazard to the unsuspecting, and a bothersome disruption to emergency vehicles and bicycles. Also, the city may be held liable for personal injury, and vehicle damage resulting from loss of control caused by the bump."
  • Rancho Cucamonga, California (from Rapid City, South Dakota)
    "An overly high bump can cause damage to the under carriage of a low riding vehicle. A smoother bump can cause an uncontrollable rocking on a smaller vehicle." ... "No single type of speed bump has been found to be successful in safely controlling the speed of all types of vehicles. They are therefore, not used. "
  • Salt Lake City, Utah
    "... actual tests of various experimental designs have demonstrated the physical inability of a speed bump to control all types of light weight and heavy weight vehicles successfully. In fact, a softsprung sedan is encouraged to increase speed for a better ride, while some vehicles may lose control."
• Portland, Maine
  • Stevens Avenue Project Report - excerpts
    "... the accident rate per month has increased from .65 to a 1.0."
  • "Stop Chicken Little" Speed Hump Information
    "The Truth About the Stevens Avenue Traffic Calming Project in Portland, Maine"
  • "Stevens Avenue pedestrian project faces challenges", John Alphonse, reality x, August 1, 1997
    "...the only way to reduce driving and encourage people to use other means of travel is by frustrating drivers to the point where they'd rather do something else. Traffic calming techniques, among them the "speed bump" and narrowed lanes, are one way of doing this..."
    - Jason Wentworth, director of the Alliance for Transportation Choice
• Sunnyvale, California - study

Air pollution increased by speed humps due to acceleration/deceleration

• Albuquerque, New Mexico
  Albuquerque Journal, "ABQjournal Road Warrior", D'Val Westphal, February 22, 2000
  'Patrick Ayala e-mails that his son, Paul, an eighth-grader at St. Mary's Catholic School, "did his science project on speed humps and ... it proved that (the stop-and-go driving) does cause carbon monoxide levels to go up as the vehicle approaches the speed humps. Paul's project will be at the Northwestern Regional Science Fair at UNM on March 18." '
• Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, "NOx Control Measure Options", Department of Environmental Resources, North Central Texas Council of Governments, January 06, 2000
  "Traffic Management - Remove speed humps"
• Houston, Texas, Nitrogen Oxides & Other Pollutants Emitted At Speed Humps in Houston, Texas
  "additional NOx generated on our neighborhood streets by the braking and acceleration at humps ... (equals) ... at least one ton per 24-hour day"
  • Links to additional reports and letters & Speedhumps.com Homepage
• Portland, Maine
  • Stevens Avenue Project
  • - the project ... "has increased some types of air pollution by almost 50 percent"
• Austria ..."cars negotiating the bumps belched out 10 times more nitrogen oxide, 3 times more poisonous carbon monoxide, and 25% more carbon dioxide, linked to global warming, than vehicles maintaining a constant speed..."
• Also see ELECTRONIC TELEGRAPH site listed below

Fuel consumption increased by speed humps

• ROADS '96 Conference Proceedings - Part 7, Traffic Engineering & Transport Planning, "Speed Profiles and Vehicle Fuel Consumption at LATM Devices", Rocco Zito and Mike Taylor, Australia
  from "CONCLUSIONS"
  "In the Glen Osmond trial, speed humps were removed, achieving a savings in fuel consumption although there was an increase in the average speed for the street. Hence the aggressive nature of speed humps with their sharp acceleration and deceleration profiles (as shown in Figure 6) lower the average speed along the street but also cause an increase in fuel consumption"

Automotive problems associated with humps

• Tire Damage
  • "Calmed into a fury", Electronic Telegraph, David Rudnick, September 5, 2000
    "The spreading jumble of humps, cushions, chicanes and pinch points are not just eyesores and a drain on public funds; they can actually contribute to the accidents they are meant to avert."
  • Example from Vancouver, Clark County, Washington, including photos of blown tires and bent rims.
• Ramp Taxis, per ramp taxi driver, California, June 14, 2000
  "Please add ramp taxis to the list of vehicles which have problems with even the smallest speed bumps.
  "The floor is lowered in the conversion process, and since the ride height remains close to the same, the floor scrapes the speed bump. On the Vantage-converted Ford Windstars, that is added stress to a body structure that already has [...problems with...] structural rigidity."
• Pre-mature Wear, Urgent Neighborhood Alert, Auburn Taxpayers and Parents for Safe Streets and Rapid Police, Fire & Paramedic Response, California, 1999
  "Continued exposure to speed bumps will cause pre-mature wear to front-end suspension parts, shocks, motor mounts and brakes. Keeping tires balanced and in alignment can also be a problem. People who live in neighborhoods with speed bumps will very likely experience higher vehicle repair costs."
  - Ray Leonard, Owner, Auburn 76 Tire and Service Center, Former President, Auburn Chamber of Commerce
• Airbags blast into the speed hump debate.
• Suspensions - link to information on our ACCESS page.
• Accidents
  • "Humps for chumps...But they'll go flat out for sensible drivers", Stephen Lewis, February 15, 2001, The Evening Press, York
    "YOU can't blame Tom Hynes for having the hump with road humps. They were, after all, responsible for not one but two of his family cars being pranged in the same bizarre accident three years ago. And it wasn't even his fault.
    "The two cars, a Volvo and a Metro, had been parked safely at the side of the road outside his home in Foxwood Lane, York. A third car, an Escort belonging to a gas repair man, was parked in between.
    "A car speeding along the road had a disagreement with a hump, flew into the air, landed on two wheels and careered across the road into Tom's Volvo.
    "The Volvo shunted into the Escort, which shunted into the Metro. Metro and Volvo were both wrecked - though bizarrely the Escort in the middle was almost undamaged.
    "So given his history it's not surprising that Tom, a 43-year-old support worker with City of York Council, isn't the biggest fan of the sleeping policeman.
    " 'Everywhere you go it's humps, humps, humps,' he grumbles. 'Where I live in Foxwood Lane, the whole road is speed humps. I used to have a Capri, and I had the whole sump ripped out. I went to B&Q to get a load of concrete. I was only doing about 15mph but the car was that low it took out the whole sump. So you could say I'm really humped off.'
    "He's not the only one. Evening Press letter writers have been eloquent about the damage caused to the undercarriage of their prized motor vehicles by the obdurate lumps of solid concrete that stretch from side to side across the road.
    "As far as Tom is concerned, they don't even do much good. The real speed-merchants - joyriding teenagers - don't take any notice of them anyway, he says.
    " 'They're going up and down at 60mph all the time,' he says. 'And they don't care, because they're not their cars.' "
  • "Speed bump is raising the ire of R.I. motorists, Shannon Tan, Boston Sunday Globe, February 4, 2001
    "In December. a police officer hit the bump and landed in the hospital with injured ribs and vertebrae. A senator's Lincoln Town Car leaked antifreeze after its encounter with the bump, resulting in $1,100 worth of repairs. And a fire engine hit the bump on the way to a fire, became airborne, and cracked its frame and water tank." - confirmation,

How different vehicles take the humps

• Buses
  • "TTC warns of speed hump dangers", Shannon Beveridge, Mirror Guardian, March 23, 2001, Toronto
    " 'It's essential for us because these speed humps are very damaging to our buses and they turn our customers into patients by throwing them around the buses,' Brian Ashton, TTC chair, said. 'It's wrecking the buses and our customers.' "
    Item 22., Toronto Transit Commission Minutes - Meeting No. 1796 Wednesday, March 21, 2001
    "APPROVED ... THAT STAFF BE REQUESTED TO PURSUE THE REMOVAL OF SPEED CALMING DEVICES ON EXISTING TRANSIT ROUTES."
  • "H10 fuel spill drama", This is London, February 21, 2001
    "The single-decker bus had a fuel tank 'filled to the brim' when the tank ruptured as it scraped against a speed bump, according to a Harrow Fire Station spokesman.
    "All buses had to be re-routed while firefighters cordoned off the area and waited for council lorries to dump sand on the road to absorb the fuel."
  • DETR - Social Exclusion and the Provision and Availability of Public Transport, Chapter 8 Transport Provision, October 27, 2000
    "...if roads are ... calmed with traffic humps, it may be difficult or impossible for low-floor vehicles to enter the area."
    & further on
    "There can be problems running buses through estates. One of these is the physical problem; some buses simply cannot go down the smaller roads. If there are road humps and parked cars it is particularly difficult. Where buses have to come to a virtual standstill to cross road humps, there can be a danger of the bus being 'stoned' by vandals. Examples of vandalisation of buses in what were generally considered less salubrious areas were given by all the operators approached during this study. "
  • ITE Traffic Information Program Series - Speed Humps
    "...speed humps may also have the following detrimental effects: ... Conflict with school and transit bus operation..."
  • Perth Press Release, July 24, 2000
    "The speed humps in Garth Avenue will be removed to allow buses to operate along the diversion route."
• "Traffic Calming Problems?", Ray Brindle, ARRB, Victoria, Australia
  "...motorists took to driving down the sidewalks to avoid the humps."
• Motorcycles
  • Forum: uk.rec.motorcycle, Richard Smith, September 4, 1999,
    "Some years ago, the local council ^[1] turned our road from a 30mph into a 20mph zone, complete with humps, bumps etc. As it was quite narrow with a sharp bend, I used to travel at about 20-25 anyway. However, I quickly discovered that my old BX would bump and thump over the hump at 20, but would glide effortlessly over it with hardly a ripple at 40 and above. I soon got into the habit of going all the way down the road with the boot down...
    ^[1] Wokingham. This was before I moved back out West."
  • Road-infrastructure problems for motorcyclists, Federation of European Motorcyclists Association
  • Motorcycle sidecar testing gets priority over disabled access evaluation.
• A cyclist explains "abrupt upward acceleration and upward pitch ... abrupt downward acceleration with a downward pitch," etc.
  (See also: reviews of FHWA publications on bicycle planning & traffic calming.)
• View a Police car that can take the humps at 70 MPH!!

Diverting Traffic

• SOUTH AFRICA
  • " Cruel driver left my girl to die in back of bakkie, claims angry dad", Sunday Times, Victor Khupiso, 10-4-98
    Child dies after being struck by a driver "...trying to avoid speed humps".
• COLORADO, Boulder Planet
  • Increasing risks on adjacent streets by diverting traffic
• MARYLAND, Montgomery County, Gazette
  • More on diverting traffic
  • "...speed increased on parallel streets by between 5 mph and 7 mph..."

Various Articles from The Electronic Telegraph

To see the complete articles, go to the "SEARCH" page, type "HUMP" in the box and click on "FIND." You'll need to register with the Electronic Telegraph, one time, before being allow access to their archives. The registration process starts as you begin your search and is fast/easy.
[See also: ET article on buses referenced on RADA/Access.]

• Humps 'increase exhaust fumes', January 14, 1998
  "ROAD humps are a serious environmental threat, causing increases in car exhaust pollution of at least 50 per cent and worsening petrol consumption, according to a Government-funded study."

• "Lawyer seeks death sentence for speed bumps", August 14, 1997
  "The final straw for Mr Burton was when the rear skirt of his Ford Escort RS1600i was torn away as he drove over a sleeping policeman 'at between 10mph and 15mph'."

• "Lamborghini importer gets the hump", May 28, 1997
  "Porsche Cars, which also brings in the 30 or so Lamborghinis sold each year in Britain, is fighting a council plan to install speed humps on the road leading to its British headquarters on the outskirts of Reading, Berks. The firm says the problem is that the streamlined Lamborghini has such a low ground clearance that with two adults on board it may grate on a speed hump."

• "Bumps give motorists the hump", December 22, 1996
  "MOTORISTS jolted and jarred by the ubiquitous road hump are hitting back. A driver compensated for a broken exhaust pipe could herald a flood of further claims."

Legal & Ethical Questions

• "The calming before a storm of protest", The Times, January 9, 2001, David Rudnick
  "TRAFFIC calming scenes may not see to offer fertile ground for litigation but if local authorities fail to consult residents properly or accept vested interests as partners in implementing them, judicial revie briefs could soon abound."
• Petition called "political document" - "not adequate to create 'a material factual issue...' "
  Dearborn Heights - "Michigan City Immune from Liability When No Admissible Evidence Showed Intersection Was Unsafe", US ROADS, August 10, 1997
  "The trial court concluded that non-expert testimony from people who lived in the neighborhood was not adequate to create 'a material factual issue concerning the safety of the intersection.' "
  ...
  "The plaintiff then offered a petition signed by area residents and claiming the intersection was unsafe. The court called this a 'political document' and remained unpersuaded by it..."
• City of Las Vegas Policy on the Use of Speed Humps for Neighborhood Speed Control, adopted by the City of Las Vegas City Council, May 3, 1995
  "7.0 LIABILITY CONCERNS
  "Speed humps and other pavement undulations are not traffic control devices as defined by the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. They are, however, geometric design features of the roadway and should be designed, installed, operated and maintained using accepted engineering principles and prudent engineering judgment.
  "If speed humps are not installed in a proper manner and with due care, and vehicle damage or personal injury occurs, it is possible the installing agency could be found to be maintaining a public nuisance, i.e., a known defect in the street system which may result in increased liability exposure. Therefore, complete and proper documents should be retained to LEFT the decisions made. Local and state laws should also be reviewed to identify any regulations pertaining to roadway design, roadway maintenance, traffic control, or other elements that may be related to the use of speed humps or other geometric design features."
• "Human Rights Act Becomes Law", The Times, London, October 2, 2000
  "The Human Rights Act, which became law today (Monday), has been billed as the most fundamental change to the justice system since the Magna Carta. For the first time, enshrined in English law is a right to life and fair trial, freedom from torture and degrading treatment, privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom to marry and have a family. The Act will also mean an end to litigants having to take the lengthy and costly road to pursue their claim at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg."
• The MUTCD, traffic management & speed humps
  • Florida says NO, Georgia in limbo - opinion
  • Sign specifications from (MUTCD, 1988)
    • Diamond shaped signs are only used "to warn of existing or possible hazards, either on or adjacent to roadway"
    • Yellow signs are for "general warning"
• The ethics of experimenting on humans ... without their consent
  • Speed humps are experimental devices (Los Angeles Times, 1-9-98)
  • CFR Title 45 Public Welfare, Subtitle A - Department of Health and Human Services
    Part 46 - Protection of Human Subjects
  • "Common Rule" adopted by the Department of Transportation
    Based on 45 CFR 46 -
    Revised: June 18, 1991 / Effective: August 18, 1991 / Revised/Reprinted: May 1996
  • OPRR Requests for Assurances to Comply with 45 CFR 46, May 17, 2000
  • THE NUREMBERG CODE, "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10", Vol. 2, pp. 181-182. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949
    "1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. ..."
    "4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury. "
    "8.The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the experiment. "
    "10. During the course of the experiment, the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probable cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill and careful judgement required of him, that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject. "

Noise increased by speed humps

• "Study Finds That Speed Bumps to Slow Traffic in Britain's Villages Result in More Noise"
  "The Daily Telegraph reports that a British government study published in Traffic Engineering & Control magazine has found that vehicles driving over speed bumps in Britain's villages are so noisy they are annoying thousands of British residents."

Property Values

• "Humps and bumps can drive buyers away", The Times, David Rudnick, September 20 2000
  "... there is evidence that traffic-calming measures may even reduce the investment value of a house or flat."
  'They can have a negative impact if they degrade the environment through causing more fumes and pollution,' says Leaf."
  Road humps in particular can cause noise and fumes as drivers brake and then accelerate away from them. This may not be immediately apparent when prospective buyers call to see your residence, but if they find themselves stuck behind a bus or delivery vehicle on the way they will notice all right."

"Spiking" automobiles

• "The Coming War on the Automobile, The Thoreau Institute
  "Auto users have been made to feel so guilty about their desire for safe, efficient, and convenient transportation that they often accept the congestion offered by New Urbanists as their just desserts."

Local Protests

Residents grump over speed bumps, The Orlando Sentinel, Jon Steinman, August 07, 2000
"Some people hate the Lake Price speed bumps so much that they`ve taken to honking their horns in disgust whenever passing over one of them, something Lake Price residents claim was dreamed up by nearby homeowners` associations to shatter the neighborhood`s quiet."

Do-It-Yourself Speed Humps

• DIY Installation
  "Things that go bump in the night", The Sunday Funnies website by Bill Becwar. (Scroll to penultimate item.)'
  "...a Pennsylvania highway road crew re-paved state road 895 directly over a dead deer that was laying in the road near the town of Andreas." - LA Times -AP, August 23, 1996

• DIY Removal
  Urban resistance or urban legend?
  "...if the bump/hump is made of asphalt you can pour gasoline on it and that will slowly soften it and cars will do the rest."

© Rada Project, 1998 - 2001
July 4, 1998 / last update: April 22, 2001 (Version 1.s)