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My neighborhood has a number of speed bumps on the street, and recently I received a ballot asking us to vote on its removal. Many of the people who live on the street with young children obviously want to keep them. We share the street with an elementary school, so there are a lot of kids walking on the sidewalks daily.
Those in support of the removal claim that it is slowing down emergency vehicles and it's a matter of life and death. Are speed bumps really being phased out for this argument? Are they trying to implement other traffic calming techniques to slow down drivers in residential neighborhoods?
Bumps or humps? There is a difference. If you have to almost stop to go over them without rattling your fillings they needed taken out and replaced by humps. Humps should be designed to be mellow enough for people to not have to s!ow down from the posted speed.
Yes, apparently several people complained about it, so they put it up to a vote. There seems to be a huge divide between people concerned about children and others worried that they will die from emergency vehicles not being able to reach them. Surely there must be some compromise?
In Greenville we have these little things they call "speed cushions" that are like a hard rubber mat placed in the center of the lane. They say that emergency vehicles can straddle them and continue at speed while passenger cars have to slow down.
I drive a full size Chevrolet van for work and can't straddle it. The front end of the ambulances around here are Chevrolet van cutaways, so...
Yes, apparently several people complained about it, so they put it up to a vote. There seems to be a huge divide between people concerned about children and others worried that they will die from emergency vehicles not being able to reach them. Surely there must be some compromise?
There are a couple not as invasive traffic calming measures you could take if the speed bumps/tables are removed - you can add curb extensions to narrow the road (also help in that crossings are shortened), also other pavement striping stuff you can do to narrow the road down (narrow lanes = slower speeds). mini-roundabouts, etc...
There are tons of things that can slow down an emergency vehicle. Traffic, red lights, pedestrians, cyclists. I'm not sure that a few speed bumps really make a difference.
The streets are public. The emergency vehicles and the emissions from having to slow down seem to be the only compelling arguments for removing them. I'm not sure if they are in the majority or minority, but it's a vocal group.
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