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The author made two mistakes: 1. Disclosing the existence of the speed bump they installed. 2. Disclosing that they installed the speed bump. If they had "for

The author made two mistakes: 1. Disclosing the existence of the speed bump they installed. 2. Disclosing that they installed the speed bump. If they had "forgotten" to do at least the first of these things, in all likelihood the speed bump would still be there. Sometimes the right thing to do is to break the rules.

teekert 2y ago
Speed bumps do have downsides: More breaking-related fine dust, more vibrations and noise for houses around them. It doesn't mean they shouldn't be placed, it means they should be considerately placed. Not just by "some dude, somewhere".
- Izikiel43 2y ago
  Sure, but the proven alternative here are a lot of instances of personal injury and property destruction, it's a pretty straightforward case.
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    The upside of adding "traffic calming" features needs to be weighed against the downside. If you only consider the upside of reduced accidents, then we'd have speed bumps and stop signs every 100 meters on every road.
    - floxy 2y ago
      >I did get the SFMTA’s attention, they let me know a month later that my application was approved. Does this "approval" mean that at some point in the future, the relevant authority will look into things? Or that some traffic calming measure was approved, now the waiting for implementation is underway?
    - lotu 2y ago
      On residential streets where you want slow traffic yes. When you have a wide straight road people go fast on it. To prevent that you narrow the road, install curves and bumps. These require to the driver to slow down and be careful, which means they also notice when there are children nearby playing and don't run them over.
      - somanyphotons 2y ago
        In my early 20s I loved the traffic calming curves, it was a really fun challenge to go just as fast as you possibly could through them
        teekert 2y ago
        Your license should have been taken away, until you'd learn, preferably before you'd kill a child.
        somanyphotons 2y ago
        Sure, but they didn't, and I didn't harm anyone. The actual point, is that not every action has the intended consequences. In this case, traffic calming curves do the opposite for a non-zero percentage of people.
wasabi991011 2y ago
The way I read the article, the author removed the speed bump of their own accord.
Xmd5a 2y ago
Accelerate decelaration. Break the rules to restore order.
arcastroe 2y ago
Especially since the only camera facing the street is the author's own! The city would have to ask the author if his camera happened to pick up the "culprit" responsible for the rogue speed bump
ars 2y ago
That's a bad idea - the speed bump can be semi-invisible in bad weather, and you'll have cars hitting it at high speed, going airborne and crashing. There's a reason they have large warning signs before a speed bump. There is also the implication that speed is the issue - but the linked video shows a car crash with slow cars, so they problem may lie elsewhere (visibility probably).
soupfordummies 2y ago
I was thinking the same! Especially when he says "I wish this story had a happy ending. Spoiler: it doesn’t. I couldn’t keep the Amazon Bump out there; there were some serious liability issues. I did get the SFMTA’s attention, they let me know a month later that my application was approved. That was 35 months ago and we still don’t have a bump." There's actually even a name for such actions: tactical urbanism. It reminds me of the old story about the guy who had been calling the county to fill a pothole for months and finally as soon as he started filling it himself and let the county know, the crews came out to fix. Or there's stories in Atlanta of steel plates being laid for months to years (a common scourge in Atlanta) and then magically they get fixed and removed once someone spray-paints dicks on them.

teekert 2y ago

Speed bumps do have downsides: More breaking-related fine dust, more vibrations and noise for houses around them. It doesn't mean they shouldn't be placed, it means they should be considerately placed. Not just by "some dude, somewhere".

Izikiel43 2y ago
Sure, but the proven alternative here are a lot of instances of personal injury and property destruction, it's a pretty straightforward case.
- ryandrake 2y ago
  The upside of adding "traffic calming" features needs to be weighed against the downside. If you only consider the upside of reduced accidents, then we'd have speed bumps and stop signs every 100 meters on every road.
  - floxy 2y ago
    >I did get the SFMTA’s attention, they let me know a month later that my application was approved. Does this "approval" mean that at some point in the future, the relevant authority will look into things? Or that some traffic calming measure was approved, now the waiting for implementation is underway?
  - lotu 2y ago
    On residential streets where you want slow traffic yes. When you have a wide straight road people go fast on it. To prevent that you narrow the road, install curves and bumps. These require to the driver to slow down and be careful, which means they also notice when there are children nearby playing and don't run them over.
    - somanyphotons 2y ago
      In my early 20s I loved the traffic calming curves, it was a really fun challenge to go just as fast as you possibly could through them
      - teekert 2y ago
        Your license should have been taken away, until you'd learn, preferably before you'd kill a child.
        somanyphotons 2y ago
        Sure, but they didn't, and I didn't harm anyone. The actual point, is that not every action has the intended consequences. In this case, traffic calming curves do the opposite for a non-zero percentage of people.

wasabi991011 2y ago

The way I read the article, the author removed the speed bump of their own accord.

Xmd5a 2y ago

Accelerate decelaration. Break the rules to restore order.

arcastroe 2y ago

Especially since the only camera facing the street is the author's own! The city would have to ask the author if his camera happened to pick up the "culprit" responsible for the rogue speed bump

ars 2y ago

That's a bad idea - the speed bump can be semi-invisible in bad weather, and you'll have cars hitting it at high speed, going airborne and crashing. There's a reason they have large warning signs before a speed bump. There is also the implication that speed is the issue - but the linked video shows a car crash with slow cars, so they problem may lie elsewhere (visibility probably).

soupfordummies 2y ago

I was thinking the same! Especially when he says "I wish this story had a happy ending. Spoiler: it doesn’t. I couldn’t keep the Amazon Bump out there; there were some serious liability issues. I did get the SFMTA’s attention, they let me know a month later that my application was approved. That was 35 months ago and we still don’t have a bump." There's actually even a name for such actions: tactical urbanism. It reminds me of the old story about the guy who had been calling the county to fill a pothole for months and finally as soon as he started filling it himself and let the county know, the crews came out to fix. Or there's stories in Atlanta of steel plates being laid for months to years (a common scourge in Atlanta) and then magically they get fixed and removed once someone spray-paints dicks on them.