Are speed bumps common where you live?
Posted by SignificantStyle4958@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 128 comments
Posted by SignificantStyle4958@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 128 comments
gravyrider@reddit
Way too common around Denver.
therealbamspeedy@reddit
I can think of one place that had a bunch of them. Its a residential neighborhood near the mall. People were cutting through the residential area to avoid the main street and stoplights/intersections. Speed bumps put a stop to that nonsense. Besides that area I struggle to think of where else there might be any (im sure there is, just cant think of any).
Major_Enthusiasm1099@reddit
Yes
raceulfson@reddit
My city has "Speed Bumps", "Speed Lumps", and "Undulations" according to the signs. I have no idea what the difference is.
mst3k_42@reddit
We have speed humps.
raceulfson@reddit
I meant "humps" instead of "lumps". Although I would not be surprised to see "lumps". Nothing surprises me after ""undulations".
mst3k_42@reddit
I don’t think I’ve seen undulations, that one is hilarious.
DhalsimZangief@reddit
I've never seen the undulation term used anywhere. What part of NC uses that term?
mst3k_42@reddit
As far as I know, we don’t use it. I was commenting on the word from the parent comment.
jessek@reddit
Very. You only see them in neighborhoods or by schools though.
Particular_Bet_5466@reddit
Yep. someone from Colorado above said they only know of one speed bump. Don’t know how that’s possible lol, maybe there’s regions without them.
sunny_6305@reddit
Unfortunately many of my neighbors cannot be trusted to do the right thing unless their own car is at risk.
Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit
I distinguish between speed humps and speed bumps. We have quite a few speed humps in neighborhoods here where I live in Georgia. You can go over them at a reasonable speed. They are sort of long so you drive up onto along them and then down the other side so they don't mess up your car too much.
Speed bumps are those high little short ones that wreck your car if you go over them too quickly. You practically have to come to a stop. We don't have a lot of those.
Slight_Manufacturer6@reddit
Only at some business parking lots. Not in the road.
qu33nof5pad35@reddit
Yes
Check_engine_lights@reddit
Yes are they not common elsewhere?
Sooner70@reddit
I wouldn't know to go where to find one on command. I mean, sure, we have 'em... But common? Nope.
Krusty_Krab_Pussy@reddit
I feel like they're not super common in MN, I only see them occasionally in parking lots and stuff.
budgie02@reddit
Right by the stops signs in parking lots too because nobody ever stops
NemeanMiniLion@reddit
Plows
Frosty_Ninja3286@reddit
Exactly, my town in NJ has the ones that are removable before the winter hits.
We live near the ocean and the town is overrun with weekenders and other tourists that speed down the streets, so they get installed before the summer and removed before the winter
SiteRude6498@reddit
not very common where I live either
meowmix778@reddit
They were uncommon where I lived in NH unless it was a parking lot. You didn't really find them on streets too often.
saberlight81@reddit
I can't remember the last time I drove over one, except in like the parking lot of a strip mall. They put them down in my neighborhood like 15 years ago and all the residents threw a fit so they took them back out after six months.
HoyAIAG@reddit
Not super common in Ohio
CinemaSideBySides@reddit
Depends where in Ohio. I'm in a denser residential area of a city and they've been putting in a lot of them.
HoyAIAG@reddit
We have them all over my city but no where else.
Apocalyptic0n3@reddit
They aren't nearly as common in colder places in my experience. Plows destroy them.
MattieShoes@reddit
I can only think of one near me, at the entrance to a grocery store parking lot. There are probably others in neighborhoods, but I don't generally drive through neighborhoods I don't live in.
Free-Sherbet2206@reddit
No, they just approved guidelines for them where I live and installed the first ones on a public street a few weeks ago.
Dizzy_Lengthiness_92@reddit
I’ve got several in my complex
Such-Mountain-6316@reddit
Somewhat. Most places around here involuntarily substitute potholes for the purpose. 🤣
Overall-Tailor8949@reddit
Yes, in my immediate area they're called "potholes"
TEG24601@reddit
Speed bumps are a symptom of a poorly designed road. They shouldn’t be needed. If they are, your planners failed.
Number_Fluffy@reddit
At my apartment and at my work.
muphasta@reddit
Unfortunately
WHowe1@reddit
Lol, I live in Michigan, we call them potholes, and they just appear out of nowhere.
Hypnox88@reddit
The only one near me is at the bottom of a very curvy road down hill. The elevation drop is significant so its always funny driving behind someone who never taken that road before.
VisionAri_VA@reddit
Very. We have speed bumps, speed humps, speed tables and speed cushions.
MasterOfPuppetsMetal@reddit
In my town, we only have them in parking lots.
TiFist@reddit
Of course? They're common in private parking lots/private roads and sometimes found in neighborhoods that successfully argue that they get too much traffic.
IlexAquifolia@reddit
Depends on the region. Rare where I live because we get heavy snow and they are a problem for snow plows.
TiFist@reddit
Fair. I was 28 before I ever even saw a snowplow. It was like seeing a unicorn.
They're much more common on private property, but are in relatively wealthy neighborhoods who don't like traffic (NIMBY-ism basically, since cities benefit when there are plenty of alternate routes and as few dead-end streets as possible.)
meowmix778@reddit
Too much traffic or speeders.
The neighborhood I live in has a miserable 15 mph speed limit, and the main road is 55. People were taking the roads just before the main road at that 55. So there's 3 speed bumps there now. Well technically they're tables but that's not here or there.
Candid-Math5098@reddit
Yes, on a few side streets that connect busier ones.
vanillablue_@reddit
My apt complex has ten.
Quicherbichen1@reddit
I drive for rideshare so, I have been on almost all the streets in Albuquerque, NM. There are no speed bumps on our main streets, but I swear that every single street that is not a main artery through the city has some sort of obstacles on them - speed bumps, speed humps, rumble strips, and curbs blocking off cross streets. Some speed bumps are really high, others are really wide, like my car has all 4 tires on top of the thing before going back down to the pavement again. This city is ridiculous mad about speeding obstacles.
madqueen100@reddit
On residential streets in some cities, yes. In some places they are called “speed humps” instead of “bumps”,, giving rise to local humor.
SiteRude6498@reddit
they're not common but they're not extremely uncommon
FlyAffectionate6307@reddit
There are some nice speedbumps at ogg airport Maui Hawaii.
cryptoengineer@reddit
Varies by town. Some have a lot, others zero.
What bothers me are the huge humps that launch you into the air if don't notice them, and hit them at speed
Subvet98@reddit
We usually call them children but call them what you want
Forsythia77@reddit
In Chicago, the signs say Speed Humps. The quickie homes write themselves.
NixMaritimus@reddit
We don't need them, we have frost heaves XD
meowmix778@reddit
My favorite part of this time of the year is figuring out which roads/back roads you need to drive up and down like a drunk to dodge all the cracks and potholes.
meowmix778@reddit
Fairly, yes. From my house to the main road I pass 3. In the area I work there's a few here and again.
kmoonster@reddit
On low-volume streets, yes. We voted-in a law a few years ago to lower the default speed limit (the default when none is posted) and that allowed the city to take more active measures to tweak the way traffic calming is enforced.
Among the options now are speed pillows. A speed "bump" is pretty sharp and meant for parking lots, max speed for them is about 5-10 miles/hour (7-15km/hour).
Speed cushions/pillows allow speeds about double that, and have gaps for large vehicles like busses and fire trucks. They are more appropriate for roads.
drebinf@reddit
Around here they're called Speed Humps. Which brings about completely different imagery to me...
dystopiadattopia@reddit
Yep. They keep putting more in to keep idiots from speeding or drag racing down residential streets
_pamelab@reddit
Only in parking lots around here.
jsmeeker@reddit
yes. i encounter a few every time I leave my apartment and come back home.
KagakuNinja@reddit
Yes, and not just in parking lots. Some residential streets also have "traffic calming barriers" that eliminate parking spots and force you to drive in a zig zag pattern.
CtForrestEye@reddit
Now that it's spring, the town is reinstalling some. They got removed for the snowplows.
RobotShlomo@reddit
Where I live citizens have been pleading with the city for year to fix the potholes. So, what did they do? Put in speed bumps.
Right idea but poor execution.
Living_Fig_6386@reddit
There's a road that crosses my street that has them -- it's a long straight road that leads to an elementary school and has historically had people driving fast on it. There are also huge speed bumps in neighborhoods near my office (in the city) and in the parking deck at work.
No-Profession422@reddit
Mostly in parking lots.
willtag70@reddit
In my area they are common in some parking lots, housing developments and neighborhoods.
ZaphodG@reddit
It snows. Speed bumps and snowplows don’t coexist. The mall has speed tables at the entrance doors that are around 100 feet wide. The 7,500 student state university in town has speed bumps on the ring road around the main campus. My private beach has one at the entrance to the gravel parking lot.
It’s April. The pot holes are traffic calming.
Responsible_Side8131@reddit
Only in parking lots.
Outrageous-Pin-4664@reddit
Yes. They just put a bunch on the street right before my mom's neighborhood. The street connects two major roads, so it gets used as a shortcut a lot, and they were speeding.
I don't object to the concept, but the implementation leaves something to be desired. The posted speed limit for the street is 35mph. The bumps are about 100 yards apart, and they have signs saying to slow down to 25mph to go over them. The bumps are so high, though, that 25 isn't good for your front end alignment. Instead of holding people to a 35mph speed limit, they've basically reduced the speed limit on the road to 25mph.
Either lowering the bumps a bit or spacing them further apart would have been a much better way to go.
At the very least, they should remove the 35mph signs, because they just look sarcastic now.
"Go ahead. Drive 35mph. Make some mechanic's day."
sluttypidge@reddit
Only in my work parking lot. I rarely see then anywhere else.
rawbface@reddit
Not in my neighborhood. I've mainly seen them in the parking lots and driveways of condo developments.
Thereelgerg@reddit
Yes
CountChoculasGhost@reddit
Almost every residential street in my neighborhood has them. Can see two from my window right now.
Main roads don’t though
No_Prior_4114@reddit
Where i grew up they were plentiful. Where I live now not so much.
TheBimpo@reddit
I live in a rural county surrounded by other rural counties. I can’t think of where a single speed bump is around here.
_WillCAD_@reddit
Yes, very. They're found in many commercial parking lots, and in many small neighborhood streets where speeding may have been a problem.
We have two varieties - the speed bump, which is a higher, hemispherical ridge that causes a massive bump as you drive over it, and the speed hump, which is wider and shallower. Bumps make you slow down to a crawl, while humps simply make you reduce speed for safety.
Lugbor@reddit
We call them potholes around here.
GreenBeanTM@reddit
Not really, the only place I can actually think of them are the road that leads down to the high school (the building is set back from the main road a ways). I know there are definitely others, but I genuinely can’t think of where they are.
Overall_Chemist1893@reddit
No, not in the typical neighborhood in the typical city; in the city where I live, for example, I haven't seen any of them. But in some private (very upper-class) neighborhoods, they might install them so that visitors go slowly when driving through. Also, I've found that some large apartment complexes and even a few Assisted Living places have them, so that the delivery trucks won't speed through.
DigitalDash56@reddit
The places I’ve seen them the most by far is Cambridge and Somerville
ZetaWMo4@reddit
There are none in my neighborhood. I only see them in parking lots these days.
uruiamme@reddit
No. But there is this 50-year-old shopping center near me that's always empty and so everyone drove around the speed bumps.
They finally removed them on the last parking lot re-seal and paint.
I don't think there's many more left in town now.
Comfortable-Waltz452@reddit
No but these potholes sure do the trick 😔
Penguin_Life_Now@reddit
I will not say they are common, but there are a few around here on residential streets where there has been a past history of people cutting through and driving too fast.
LabInner262@reddit
Mic of speed bumps, traffic circles, and traffic cops.
TheLizardKing89@reddit
They’re only really in parking lots.
Quirky_Commission_56@reddit
Not where I live. 🤷🏻♀️
StewReddit2@reddit
Depends.....
In commercial lots, easily maybe 30% or so may have them.
When it comes to residential streets it varies greatly...just depends...this housing tract may have them...the next tract over may not.
Some neighborhoods may push to have more than others, some get them due to traffic patterns/historical issues.
Honestly, it tremendously diverse
PinchedTazerZ0@reddit
I bounce between 3 areas on the west coast, in the north, and the south. Large city, rural area, and a suburb of 100k
I haven't seen any speed bumps anywhere but parking lots and.... school zones maybe?
LiqdPT@reddit
Residential neighborhoods sometimes. Mine, outside Seattle, has them
endthepainowplz@reddit
No, seems like they used to be more common in parking lots at the pedestrian crossings, now I only know where two are, and they are well out of the way of anyone.
Smart_Engine_3331@reddit
Not common, but in some places.
VeronicaMarsupial@reddit
Yes. EVERYWHERE on non-arterials that are wide enough that people might think they should be able to go faster.
Grafakos@reddit
Pretty common on residential "through streets" (ones that can be used as shortcuts through neighborhoods) around here. There are often small traffic circles at intersections, for the same reason: slowing people down.
Writing_Nearby@reddit
Not as common as pot holes
mangobibi@reddit
Yes, in residential areas and parking lots. I think there are more in more expensive/richer areas.
TenMoon@reddit
Haha, no. We have a lot of dirt roads and after a rain, they turn into washboards.
LopsidedGrapefruit11@reddit
In residential areas with a history of dangerous driving. Mostly on very steep hills people want to speed on.
SkyBerry924@reddit
The only ones near me are at the entrance to the costco parking lot. I live in the Midwest suburbs and there are literally none on public streets
Dapper-Presence4975@reddit
Yes, and also seeing speed humps crop up more often in residential neighborhoods.
Aquarius_K@reddit
Only near apartment complexes or trailer parks.
wegochai@reddit
Yes in neighborhoods. Dips are more common at lights and on busier roads and they’re a nightmare. Especially when you’re trying to make a light and it catches you off guard just as you pass through. Truly the worst.
notsosecretshipper@reddit
Not really. The only ones I encounter regularly are on the school campus, but I know there are some just inside the entrances to some of the gated communities and also the trailer parks. I think there are a few in the county park too. I can't think of a single one that's just like... out on a public road.
nosidrah@reddit
They’ve started putting speed “humps” on residential streets around here. They’re about four feet wide.
tuberlord@reddit
I wish they were. The "my entire net worth is tied up in my truck" crowd loves to race past my house.
Rock-Wall-999@reddit
Yes
HoldOnHelden@reddit
Ugh, they keep putting friggin speed bumps on the side streets and it is PISSING ME OFF. Yeah, they’re ALL OVER THE PLACE here in Washington DC and ARGH 🤬
Mtrina@reddit
Dont need em weve got potholes
Jerentropic@reddit
They were just installed in the last year on most of the side streets in my neighborhood of Benton Park, in St. Louis.
anneofgraygardens@reddit
not really. I encounter them very occasionally.
ToastetteEgg@reddit
They are small neighborhood specific, but in urban areas very common.
Icy-Role2321@reddit
My apartment complex added them because people kept speeding through the entrance and breaking the gate.
Now people still speed through it and break the gate
DogsBikesAndMovies@reddit
No. Speed bumps are a suburban thing. I live in the city.
Cinisajoy2@reddit
Only on certain campuses.
starjammer69@reddit
Unfortunately they are in too many places.
somecow@reddit
Parking lots. Almost always. Sometimes whoever owns the place puts MASSIVE ones too, and way too many.
GardenWitchMom@reddit
All of the streets near schools have them where I live.
No_Significance7570@reddit
In parking lots yes. Seems like they've taken out a lot in residential areas near me though. They added them in my neighborhood just to take them back out a few months later. I think for emergency vehicles
Pitiful_Lion7082@reddit
Very much so. My parents street got repaved, and they took out all of the speed bumps. The neighborhood actually petitioned the city to put them back, and they did. They're also all over shopping center parking lots
PaepsiNW@reddit
They're everywhere in shopping plazas and residential areas.
Beneficial-Union-726@reddit
Yes they were put in my neighborhood before the stop signs. People were not stopping and we had a lot of accidents.
Key_Set_7249@reddit
Yes, shout out to the Beachmont Ave speedbumps in Mt. Washington.
Clean-Turnip5971@reddit
Not at all. I can only think of two in a 3 county area and they're inside a private development.
Shoddy-Secretary-712@reddit
There are none in my town, or the close by small city. The slighlty bigger city (the one with a target) has them.
Cudpuff100@reddit
Parking lots and neighborhood streets that don't have many stop signs. Some streets are prone to having people speed, so speed bumps get installed to encourage slower driving.
TheBeerGuzzlingApe@reddit
Just in the drive through park
dangleicious13@reddit
In neighborhoods, yes.