Originally published at: Chalk, and a lack of concern for others, do not make a safe and effective speedbump | Boing Boing
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Hm. I wonder how Tesla’s “autopilot” reacts to any speedbump?
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I feel like if you spun out due to trying to stop for a fake speed bump, you would fuck up your car in the event they put in a real one. Which is what those people evidently have asked the city to do.
ETA:
But this reminds me of a cartoon I want to draw:
Two guys driving in a car, when they see a sign, “Drive like your kids live here.”
The driver narrows his eyes and guns it.
“What are doing? Didn’t you see the sign?”
“My kids know not to play in the street.”
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“These gentlemen were very lucky that no one we know of was hurt slamming on their brakes for an unexpected speed bump that wasn’t there.”
My neighborhood has the opposite problem: actual speedbumps that are the same color as the road and not visible until you’re right up on them, as if the point of a speedbump is to punish the driver by bouncing them instead of encouraging them to slow down.
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For funsies and slightly off topic: In Spanish one way of referring to speed bumps is Policia Acostado (literal translation being Police lying down)
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“These gentlemen were very lucky that no one we know of was hurt slamming on their brakes for an unexpected speed bump that wasn’t there.”
Here in UK they long since stopped giving advance warning of speed bumps. They are all over the place. And anyone seeing one who needs to “slam” their brakes on is in general not doing it right (driving overall and not driving at a reasonable speed).
Yes, this may have been a not especially clever prank, but the faux outrage that someone may have “slammed” on their brakes and this may have hurt anyone is ridiculous.
They used to be called Sleeping Policemen, here.
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“seems lucky no one spun out”
They have a clear view of the road ahead so that should never have been a possibility unless they were driving extremely dangerously. Some drivers really are very sensitive about their “right” to drive uninhibited.
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For years the speed bumps around our area (large Western US city) were labelled with signs and street markings that warned of “Speed Bumps.” Then a few years back they were suddenly re-labelled as “Speed Humps.” The street markings say things like “Humps Ahead.” I’ve never found out why the change was made, especially as “hump” offers opportunities for lewd interpretations that “bump” does not.
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Yeah the implication in Spanish is that they are sleeping, though the wording is ambiguous enough that it can be interpreted as either sleeping or just lying down.
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Seems a pretty reasonable expectation that people should be able to live free of the fear of being mown down by cars. Well done them. If you can’t slow down safely to a stop, you are driving dangerously.
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It is obviously the drivers speeding on a residential road at such a pace that they don’t have the ability to react safely to an obstruction in the road who lack a concern for others!!!
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Obviously loads of lobbying by Fergie…
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There are about a million reasons for a driver to have to brake suddenly. If doing so causes injury, 100% of the fault lies on the driver for driving too fast, following too closely or not paying attention.
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Same here Every. Single. Time I see one of those signs I get this in my head:
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Man, great idea. I live on a private road, it’s 11 feet wide and about 1,200 feet long. It’s a private road with no HOA. The speed limit has always been 5mph but 10mph, while a little fast, is acceptable but anything over is dangerous with kids always playing.
I’ve been on the street for 57 years, as people come and go every few years we get new neighbors who don’t quite get it. Me and another neighbor purchased some commercial grade speed limit signs and installed them so the new people would get the message.
Our only method of enforcing is to first ask politely to slow down, and then more firmly but these new 20 somethings think they can just drive as fast as they want. I’ve even sent out very polite letters every few years with gentle reminders about kids playing and not to drive on lawns, it helps for a while but not long.
We could put speed bumps but it would be expensive and it would make it difficult to plow the snow.
Point is, I get their frustration and if a fake speed bump caused a vehicle to loose control imagine how it would go if it was a kid and not a fake speed bump.
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Okay, who are you and what did you do with @jlw?
Well, the folks in this video are doing their best to reduce speed in what sure looks like a residential area where drivers are routinely driving what sure looks like dangerously fast.
[Citation needed] on this entire sentence.
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There is actually a technical distinction, and “speed humps” is the actual technical term, even if it does sound kinda lewd (much like “throbber” is the correct-but-also-why-would-you-call-it-that name for an indeterminate loading spinner).
A speed bump is the sort of thing you typically encounter in parking lots and other 5-10 MPH speed zones. A speed hump is a wider elevated surface that’s designed to be crossed safely at speeds up to 20-30 MPH, but will give you a serious jostle if you try doing it any faster. They’re also a more recent addition to the traffic safety arsenal.
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Then what’s a speed “table?” No snark, just curious about the differences.
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interesting that jlw seems to be 100% out of sync with the boingboing crowd and is siding with dangerous drivers.
I too believe that if a driver has an accident because of a chalk speedbump then they are already driving badly and need to be stopped as soon as possible. We need to be doing more to slow down the speed demons.
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I have my suspicions.
