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> To be fair speed bumps to slow a car to 35mph seems like slightly the wrong tool What alternative would you suggest? As a parent of kids who cross the stree

> To be fair speed bumps to slow a car to 35mph seems like slightly the wrong tool What alternative would you suggest? As a parent of kids who cross the street to get to school, in my fantasy world, speed limits in school zones are enforced by impounding the offenders' cars.

benj111 8y ago
Well I would be aiming for a lower speed for outside a school, and I also wouldn't want to drive over a speed bump at 35mph. If the aim is to lower to speed to 35mph, speed cameras? In my fantasy world school drop off points would be 10 minutes walk from the school. But impounding sounds good too :)
- tom_ 8y ago
  35mph is presumably the upper limit, not the lower one. Perhaps the goal is to make cars go even slower than that when going over the crossing.
  - dsfyu404ed 8y ago
    >35mph is presumably the upper limit Yeah. I'd wager that they will not be pleased when they catch some teenager catching air in his shitbox at 34.9mph.
- skywhopper 8y ago
  Why can't this be one of many tools in designing the environment to accommodate multiple road users? And isn't it better to design the road to encourage safe driving rather than designing a system designed solely to punish users who do something against the rules?
- village-idiot 8y ago
  > I also wouldn't want to drive over a speed bump at 35m ... yes, that’s the point.
  - benj111 8y ago
    I get that. What if they put speed bumps on the motorway/freeway, to slow everyone down for roadworks? FTA "and was built to slow cars to 35 miles per hour" Yes use speed bumps to slow people to 20mph, not 35mph.
    - village-idiot 8y ago
      Your argument seems to center around you conflating various traffic calming measures. If you look at the pictures in the article you will see that they are depicting a speed table, not a speed bump. Speed tables are longer and gentler than a speed bump, and designed to slow the vehicles down less than a speed bump or speed hump. I agree that 35mph is a bit high for most speed tables, but 30mph would not be out of place for such a device. Obviously hitting a speed bump at 35mph would be a very bad experience, but that's a different device than what's represented in the article.
dsfyu404ed 8y ago
>What alternative would you suggest? Roads that are not straight, wide and well marked cause drivers to slow down naturally. Bushes trees and other landscaping can be used to make the road seem narrow which also makes people slow down. Having a good S-curve before the slow area works well too and many rural towns do this. For a school zone you should probably stick a traffic light at the school entrance since that will allow you to create a traffic clusterfuck in order to slow traffic for the hours when you want it slow and not reduce the capacity of the road the rest of the time. Turning it into a 4-way stop would probably work well since people approach those slowly since they have to stop anyway.
- FiveSquared25 8y ago
  And also reduce bushes and lawns, they obstruct. And overly tall trees.
walshemj 8y ago
In the UK 90% of the traffic near schools and start and end times are parents driving there kids to school
a11595 8y ago
As a $12k/year property tax payer who has no kids, in my fantasy world kids would not be allowed on the street or in front of my house. This would be enforced by impounding the children of parents who don't teach then to blindly run out into the street w/o checking for cars. This way the speed limit on my street could be raised from 30mph to 45, reduce traffic, and save time for thousands of people traversing that street in their cars every month trying to get to work.

benj111 8y ago

Well I would be aiming for a lower speed for outside a school, and I also wouldn't want to drive over a speed bump at 35mph. If the aim is to lower to speed to 35mph, speed cameras? In my fantasy world school drop off points would be 10 minutes walk from the school. But impounding sounds good too :)

tom_ 8y ago
35mph is presumably the upper limit, not the lower one. Perhaps the goal is to make cars go even slower than that when going over the crossing.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  >35mph is presumably the upper limit Yeah. I'd wager that they will not be pleased when they catch some teenager catching air in his shitbox at 34.9mph.
skywhopper 8y ago
Why can't this be one of many tools in designing the environment to accommodate multiple road users? And isn't it better to design the road to encourage safe driving rather than designing a system designed solely to punish users who do something against the rules?
village-idiot 8y ago
> I also wouldn't want to drive over a speed bump at 35m ... yes, that’s the point.
- benj111 8y ago
  I get that. What if they put speed bumps on the motorway/freeway, to slow everyone down for roadworks? FTA "and was built to slow cars to 35 miles per hour" Yes use speed bumps to slow people to 20mph, not 35mph.
  - village-idiot 8y ago
    Your argument seems to center around you conflating various traffic calming measures. If you look at the pictures in the article you will see that they are depicting a speed table, not a speed bump. Speed tables are longer and gentler than a speed bump, and designed to slow the vehicles down less than a speed bump or speed hump. I agree that 35mph is a bit high for most speed tables, but 30mph would not be out of place for such a device. Obviously hitting a speed bump at 35mph would be a very bad experience, but that's a different device than what's represented in the article.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

>What alternative would you suggest? Roads that are not straight, wide and well marked cause drivers to slow down naturally. Bushes trees and other landscaping can be used to make the road seem narrow which also makes people slow down. Having a good S-curve before the slow area works well too and many rural towns do this. For a school zone you should probably stick a traffic light at the school entrance since that will allow you to create a traffic clusterfuck in order to slow traffic for the hours when you want it slow and not reduce the capacity of the road the rest of the time. Turning it into a 4-way stop would probably work well since people approach those slowly since they have to stop anyway.

FiveSquared25 8y ago
And also reduce bushes and lawns, they obstruct. And overly tall trees.

walshemj 8y ago

In the UK 90% of the traffic near schools and start and end times are parents driving there kids to school

a11595 8y ago

As a $12k/year property tax payer who has no kids, in my fantasy world kids would not be allowed on the street or in front of my house. This would be enforced by impounding the children of parents who don't teach then to blindly run out into the street w/o checking for cars. This way the speed limit on my street could be raised from 30mph to 45, reduce traffic, and save time for thousands of people traversing that street in their cars every month trying to get to work.