Speed Humps/Cushions how do you take them?

[Welly]

Unofficial research suggests that speed bumps and in particular Euro Rubber Speed Cushions which look like this are having an adverse affect on tyre wear. Many drivers report wear to the inner edge of the front tyres when travelling over speed cushions regularly even when it was shown that the wheel alignment was correct.



Most drivers prefer to 'straddle' a speed cushion for comfort but this is not considered best for your car.

It is thought that as the heavy front end passes over the chamfered edge of the cushion then the tyre wants to 'slip' outwards and downwards suffering the weight of the car on the inner shoulder of the tyre causing wear. Not only this but the suspension is put under stresses that it was not designed for leading to early failure of suspension bushings and alignment problems.

It is thought that the best way to pass over a speed cushion is with one wheel flat on the road and the other allowed to pass over the top of the cushion fully (slowing you right down, which is what they're supposed to do). Critics of this method suggest that the road spring is subjected to excessive compression and may lead to premature failure

I'm a 'straddler' but do so at insanely slow speed however I may well change to the 'one wheel on' method and see how it feels from now on.

[Bailes1992]

I do it exactly how you say!
If I can't use both of them so one wheel on each hump then i put one wheel flat on the floor and the other in the centre of he bump.

Horrible things! Oh did I say I go painfully slow too!

[Welly]

Top Marks Bailes!

Round my way the buses and lorries smash over them allowing the ground to break up around the cushion, you then find you end up passing over the thing to drop straight into a pot hole - nice

I think I annoy other drivers as I slow right down for them, I even accelerate towards the hump to buy me some time to slow over them

[rwb]

They ought to be banned.

[steve_earwig]

Bad experience or did they put one outside your house so it feels like an earthquake every time a lorry goes past?

All these "traffic calming" measures increase pollution, wear & tear on our cars and I don't think they make anything safer, quite the opposite really as drivers are more concentrated on negotiating them than any other hazards.

When I had my first BX I used to have a mate in Hackney, for some reason it cleared these pads totally if I got them just right. I'm not sure if it had a wider track than most cars or they just made them wrong. For "sleeping policemen" I used to run up to them sticking my brakes on, hit the throttle just before and then release the brakes - it used to go over them like they weren't there (obviously in those days I wasn't quite so worried about silly things like fuel consumption, replacing brakes etc. ). I also used to go through those width restriction chicane things at full chat, something I tried in the mk2 Ashtray and it shed a hubcap...

There's some of those pads on the hill up to the cemetery in Zagreb, most of the time you don't get much choice other than to go over them with both tyres as it's quite narrow and fairly busy. Unless you want to make new friends.... Sleeping policemen in the Pug - slow as feck. In the Yoyo? Meh, hardly bother slowing down. You feel every little bump and pothole in the road anyway.

[puggy]

Usually as welly does except on one occasion (doggy loves to remind me ) when i
forgot the road i was on had some

[Welly]

I don't agree with them as others have said; they cause pollution, noise and distraction. I prefer the electronic signs which flash up your ACTUAL speed in a kinda name-and-shame fashion

[DaiRees]

I tend to straddle them, I slow down a bit but if I were to get a wheel over them I'd have to slow down much more. I can't take normal sleeping policemen or the longer raised sections at speed in the Vulva either though because the suspension is too hard, gotta slow right down. The pug was generally much less affected by most traffic calming measures.

[KozmoNaut]

Unlike most of you, I prefer this type of speed bumps, because I can go right between them at full speed on my motorcycle :-P

In my car, I usually straddle them at moderate to low speed. Although I am having my tyres replaced next week due to abnormal wear. I put it down to suspension wear, my tyre guys says it happens constantly to Pirellis and Bridgestones. Perhaps it has something to do with speed humps, I'll try and take 'em with one side of my car in the future.

[Welly]

In readiness for my new 'technique' yesterday I got myself lined up ready to take my local humps and show them who's boss........

On way home last night >> forgot and straddled as normal.

On way to work this morning >> forgot and straddled as normal

[waue1978]

Sonia will back me up on this, but we have the euro-style ones like in the pic, but made of blocks & you have to weave all over the place with them as half of the blocks are missing. My first E39 Beemer picked up 2 punctures in a month because the bolts that were supposed to be holding the blocks down had come undone & wedged into my tyres!

[robb]

The ones I go over every morning are right across the road so I drive on the pavement saves my droplinks but the pedestrians dont seem too happy as I barge them into the gardens

[grasmere59]

I have these in the village where I live but they have the adverse affect on speed,they are only half way down the village so when the cars clear the last one people shove there foot down and away and when they come past my house people are going faster than they normally would be. Sometimes I think these road planners have there heads up there backsides when they "plan" traffic calming,the next village along has chicane type affair when you enter at one end of the village,what do they do,-------put it on a blind bend! When you approach the road and it is clear you go for it and all of a sudden a car comes that you couldn't see round the bend and you meets you head on!,there are bits door mirrors strewn all over the place,it creates so much road rage it's unreal.

[rwb]

The ones I go over every morning are right across the road so I drive on the pavement saves my droplinks but the pedestrians dont seem too happy as I barge them into the gardens

Well cyclists are always on the pavements harassing pedestrians, so why not?

[robb]

Dont get me going on cyclists they are devil spawned, each time I have to overtake one they swerve so I have to take evasive action and I spill my full brekkie off my knee onto the floor