The apartment complex I live in has recently installed several speed bumps along every road in the complex.
These senseless, six-inch-high mounds of wasted asphalt serve no purpose other than to annoy me in the morning as I am bounced around the cab of my car by each and every one.
What is the point of a speed bump anyway? To make people slow down right?
But, the speed bumps in my neighborhood, like practically everywhere else, are so high that drivers accelerate over them. The car shakes less when you travel over them fast than when you drag your car across the bumps slowly.
However, speed bumps are more than annoying — they are dangerous and potentially deadly.
Speed bumps resulted in the vertebral injury of two firefighters and even the death of an 18-year-old woman in California.
All three suffered their injuries or died of hitting their heads on the roof of their vehicles after being jolted by excessively high speed bumps.
Most speed bumps are found in metropolitan areas and contribute to pollution in the city.
They cause cars to release larger amounts of harmful fumes into the atmosphere, according to a research study in Austria.
The study discovered that when cars accelerate and brake between speed bumps they emit three times more deadly carbon monoxide and 10 times more nitrogen oxide. As a car goes over the speed bump, the study says, it increases the output of carbon dioxide 25 percent more than a vehicle moving at a constant speed.
My friend, Harry, has a Toyota Corolla with very low ground clearance. (If you’ve ever ridden in a Corolla, you know that when I say low, I mean really low.)
On more than one occasion, his car has been known to get stuck on top of some of the larger speed bumps in the area.
And, although seeing his car teetering back and forth on a speed bump is quite humorous to everyone else, Harry is not amused.
The bumps caused axle and suspension problems to his aging compact car and have cost him a sizable amount of money to fix.
Without a doubt, the most serious problem created by speed bumps, which were originally intended to slow down traffic, is that they slow down emergency response vehicles as well.
In fact, using a formula created by scientist Ray Bowman, Assistant Fire Chief Les Bunte determined that at least 37 people would die because of slower emergency response time for every one life saved by slower traffic.
But, since Bunte only accounted for deaths from sudden cardiac arrest and not deaths caused by delayed responses from fire fighters, the actual number might be higher than 37 to 1.
Think I’m taking this whole speed bump thing a little too serious?
Don’t tell that to the Americans Against Traffic Calming.
The AATC is a national group based in Austin, Texas, that argues speed bumps or “traffic calmers” are “illegal road obstructions.”
Perhaps the AATC is taking the speed bump issue too seriously, but I am just Tellin’ It Like It Is.
