Worst speed hump in Britain named

A speed hump in Staffordshire has been named the worst in Britain in a survey by Continental Tyres. The offending hump, on Tower View Road, Great Wyrley lies in the path of a notorious flood spot and is often submerged in water and hidden from view. It is covered in deep scores and scratches from being hit by unsuspecting motorists and an action group – Wyrley Residents Against the Hump – has been set up to campaign for its removal.

The hump is one of 10 ‘sleeping policemen’ highlighted as the worst in the UK in the Continental Tyres poll. Others to make the list include the first hump in Hurdis Road, Solihull, where the road on one side of it is lower than the other, causing vehicles to hit the ground hard; one extra high hump on Mere Street, Leicester which is sparking road rage among drivers and one on Victoria Road, Cirencester that causes more discomfort when driven over at less than 20 mph, when it violently rocks the car and causes drivers to hit their heads.

Speed humps were introduced in 1991 as a measure for controlling vehicle speeds. While there is no record of how many speed humps there are in the UK today, it is estimated that London alone has between 20,000 and 30,000 of them around the city.

Recent research by Warranty Direct shows that over the last 10 years, an average of one in eight cars has suffered suspension damage that could be directly attributed to speed humps. The highest average cost of repairs topped £319 in 2005.

A 2003 report by the British Tyre Manufacturers Association (BTMA) showed that the second biggest cause for removing tyres before they wore out was impact damage, while Continental Tyres has seen the volume of tyres returned due to impact damage increase by 60% since 2001.

Roger Sanders, technical expert at Continental Tyres, said: “The main issue that we face with speed humps is the lack of consistency in design. Shapes, heights and materials vary wildly from hump to hump, which means that drivers are unsure on how best to approach them and therefore risk unexpected impact. As far as tyre damage is concerned, the worst ones that we see are the triangular-shaped, hard-moulded plastic ones, characteristic of supermarket car parks. These are steep and noisy to drive over and can cause damage to a vehicle, even when hit at relatively low speed.

“That’s not to say that all speed humps are bad. There are some, for example, platform ones where you can actually drive on and over the hump, which are very effective and, providing they are driven over at the correct speed, should not cause any damage to the tyre or indeed the car itself.”

The Government reports that for every one mph decrease in speed, the chance of an accident reduces by five per cent. However, Paul Smith at Safe Speed believes that they are potentially dangerous and ineffective: “Like much in modern road safety, the cure may be worse than the disease. Speed humps delay ambulances, damage vehicles, cause agony to people with injuries and take responsibility away from drivers. For fifteen years road safety policy has focused on ‘speed management’ – humps, speed limit reductions and speed cameras. Under these policies our national rate of improvement of has slowed to a crawl. More people are being hospitalised than five years ago.”

The maximum legal height of a speed hump is 100mm, although the Government recommends that they are no taller than 75mm.

The top ten in full includes:

1 Tower View Road, Great Wyrely
2 Hurdis Road, Solihull
3 Victoria Road, Cirencester
4 East Churchfield Avenue, Acton
5 Waggon Road, Breightmet, Bolton
6 Mere Road, Highfields, Leicester
7 Manstone Lane, Sidmouth, Devon
8 Castle Street, Loughor, Swansea
9 Old Hill, Chislehurst
10 Downton Road, Knowle West, Bristol