by Louis Albornoz

Created on: February 10, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

The general public has been falsely led to believe that speed bumps save lives. The rationale behind installing speed bumps is that they will force motorists to slow down. Supposedly, a motorist driving slowly is less likely to kill a pedestrian. Hence, a "speed bumps save lives" mentality has been mistakenly adopted by many people. Unfortunately though, "speed bumps take lives" would be a more accurate slogan.

Speed bumps, also known as speed humps, speed tables, raised crosswalks, and vehicle deflection devices, are responsible for the needless death of countless people every year. They are a hindrance to emergency response vehicles and they impede the rapid delivery of life-saving services.

Fire trucks, ambulances, and other emergency response vehicles must slow to an almost complete stop when encountering speed bumps and then accelerate back to their previous speed. In many instances, this small delay is the difference between life and death for a person trapped in a burning house or someone who has just suffered a heart attack. The delay only gets worse when numerous speed bumps are factored into the equation.

Speed bumps also cause many other problems including:

1. Environmental damage: The unnecessary slowing and acceleration of vehicles encountering speed bumps wastes fuel and contributes to air pollution.

2. Vehicle damage: Driving over speed bumps increases wear and tear on vehicles. This leads to higher maintenance and repair costs for vehicle owners. Speed bumps are especially damaging to vehicles when driven over at regular speeds by unaware motorists. Street signs and markings meant to inform motorists of the presence of speed bumps are not always clearly visible.

3. Traffic Congestion: Speed bumps increase travel time so traffic usually shifts to neighboring streets that don't have them. This causes increased road congestion and delays for all motorists.

Speed bumps do force motorists to slow down but they seldom prevent pedestrians from being killed. There are approximately 5,000 pedestrian fatalities per year in the United States and this statistic has remained relatively unchanged even after the widespread installation of speed bumps and similar "traffic calming" devices in many cities.

Here is a quote directly from a comprehensive study on the matter (Traffic Calming: State of the Practice) by the Federal Highway Administration:

"Traffic calming in the U.S. is largely restricted to low volume residential streets. Collisions occur infrequently on such streets to begin with, and any systematic change in collision rates tends to get lost in the random variation from year to year. This limits our confidence in drawing inferences about safety impacts of traffic calming."

Additionally, numerous studies have proven that communities are at far greater risk from delayed emergency response caused by speed bumps and similar traffic calming devices, than from speeding vehicles. Speed bumps were created to reduce speeding but one simple fact remains speeding does not kill people. Only bad driving does. People have been killed by cars going 5mph.

So there you have it, speed bumps are useless! If speed bumps are present in your neighborhood and you would like them to be removed, send a written request to your locally elected officials.

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