A Bump in the Road

Funny....I just wrote....a nano-second ago... maybe something at the end of yesterdays' comment post...to the similiar...piont "Time has slowed ...up to  a Taciturn STOP!!!!; . that would pertain to this train of thinking....thought...read my last post on yesterdays....topic...Good nite ...again...writing late maybe over thinking out the events of the news...and all the reading I do....yeks....my heavens good nite....

The guy who invented Speed Bumps is a thorough Rotter, with a Brother-in-Law who owns a Front End Shop, and gives him twenty-five percent of the Monthly Profits ...
 
A Pox Upon Them Both .......

KYC is in the house...woop!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&ob=av2e

IVAN ~ I second that...

Something a bit more original...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyJEPQ5CdQw&feature=plcp&context=C45f7796VDvjVQa1PpcFPkzEql1G_wApX2D0cgwzqHgBkASy1Jkss%3D

IVAN ~
So, true.
There is a fairly long city block, perpendicular to our street, a couple of whose residents convinced city planners that special treatment was required to slow traffic.
The paving had been such that many drivers avoided it entirely and it is unlikely that more than a few over the years ever attained the speed limit let alone surpassed it.
But, there it is, they spoke up, others did not. No measures were ever taken to prove their point and the design accommodated their false concerns.
The street tapers at each end, has several places where the curbs are bumped out to give the impression of six permanently parked cars directly across from each other and, in the middle of the block, there is a big honking speed bump with a sign: 15 MPH.
In the forty years we have been here, there has never been a child under sixteen living there.
Ironically, one of the instigators has gone toes-up and is doubtless keeping company with the late Jeffrey Dahmer and the guy who invented round shoe laces.
The other, a man well-known for bringing traffic to a halt by leaning against a car or truck in traffic for a nice long visit, skipped out on his mortgage without having bothered to turn off the water and his flooded house sits empty and ruined.
It is a nightmare for the snow plow driver and the yellow painted curbs at the narrow points have not deterred people from parking there which won me a bet that was like stealing.
Only weeks after the street reopened, a jogger stumbled on the speed bump (it's a biggun) and landed on his face.

KYC & STONEY:   GREAT to see you both !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Thanks for the Notice .......
 
Its off to Bed I am .......
 
Y'll Have a Great Day !!!

Instead of, say, a five-inch speed bump, maybe they should try digging a five-inch-deep rut in the street.

See if that would make motorists go s .. l .. o .. w.

Beach Music is so much fun.....   www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCivJ9i3ZY4 long time ago...On occasion, becasue I got up @ 7:00 for work, I played the tamburine....and sang backup....played along time ago GunGirlsIn Town...with Irene Goodnight....thank goodness for hometown fun...music....roadblocked society...we just created our own music fun...

Ivan...I triple that!! High five!!
Hate those rotten things!

Time to revisit...the Road Signs Love Story....

http://www.petermanseye.com/photos/283511

My street, in a quiet hamlet in Massachusetts, opens onto a 2-lane state road. The corner is on a steep grade, sharply curving away, and has tall bushes obscuring oncoming traffic. The speed limit as you approach the intersection is supposed to be 25, but nobody bothers to slow down. In other words, making a left turn is a crap-shoot, governed by instinct and the tides.

I was just wondering whether any of the Nottinghamshire Humps would come available on eBay, and then I read lotlot's post.............:-D

Speed bumbps and 'round abouts' are the bane of driving.   It seems that on any street that used to be a good short cut there are now installed either of those evils.  And, Ivan is probably on to something with his summation of who profits from it.......

Longdream ~
Like so many of life's problems, the answer to yours can be found in scripture: see the burning bush.

The only thing that I abhor more than unnecessary speed bumps, are the persons who caused them to come into being.
But, I am a big fan of roundabouts although when it takes four in a row to cross the highway on 9th Street, I am a little disoriented as a result and they look to be a regular nightmare for pedestrians.

I like the return of 'roundabouts'; they're slow but any speed is better than STOP.

Good morning everyone. We have neither speed bumps nor roundabouts in these parts, and I cannot dredge up a memory about either in prior years not spent here. Unless driving in D.C. counts. What we do have is a paucity of traffic lights and signs and when I asked the First Selectman why a particular intersectiion was left to chaos, he replied "Locals know how to do it." Great, this in a tourist based economy.

George Hall ~
Exactly, especially late at night when it seemed like Chinese water torture to sit at a red light with no one in sight in any direction.

Damn sppedbump made me spill my coffee,and then my autofill made the text message I was sending to a social site get misspelled...I hate speedbumps...but, the 7 bobblehead dolls on the dashboard seem to love them.....

"I'll stop at the next one twice,officer..."

Speed bumps in the open malls.  AWWWW, come on, pleeeeeese!  Only thing is I've never heard about anyone hit while walking across the ingress/egress lane to get to the parking lot.  But they are ANNOYING.

Stoney--

In lieu of bothering the wonderful pastor in the Congregational church about how to ask God about traffic trivia, I went and sat for a while in the Barnes & Noble where a woman once saw the Virgin in the front picture window. I sat on one of the sofas and tried to maintain an open, prayerful attitude, but it is a bookstore after all, and I got distracted. No revelation was forthcoming.

On the way home I stopped at the local supermarket where they had a lot of cute lawn ornaments on display. Many of them were tablet-shaped, and I read them eagerly, but they only had bas-relief bunnies and chicks on them.

I'm still trying to keep myself in a receptive state of mind, but work beckons and it's difficult to modulate my mood while reading my email.

If I am summoned to receive an answer, I will reveal it, pronto.

I was born and learned to drive in NYC, where there aren't many rotaries (East-Coast American for roundabout). When I got to Massachusetts I found that they are the planning solution to every upsetting traffic situation.

In early days I had trouble with hesitation, but a friend gave me a sure-fire way to negotiate any rotary: "Don't meet the eyes of the other guy."

It takes a little nerve, but it's true.

KYC Scary looking Mason Jars!

CHEF DEB ~ they weren't that scary until I saw them in the video...now every time I pass the kitchen counter they seem to be in different positions. Creepy...

New Jersey had a bunch of traffic circles--that's what we called them. We had traffic circles and hammer heads. (A hammerhead is where you turn right and loop around to make a left-hand turn.)  As a youth, I found traffic circles very intimidating--many of them have been removed because there were so many accidents.  Now I live in WI and round-abouts are the new darlings of road engineers.  I guess they are ok--particularly on a fairly quiet intersection--much better than a traffic light or 4 way stop.  But when they get over 2 lanes, they are pretty complicated. They take practice. You have to have your wits about you before  you enter and pick your lane carefully--switching lanes mid-circle is not encouraged. And they have double roundabouts near highways and such.  One time I had planned to lunch at an Applebees restaurant at Hwy 43 and Mooreland Rd. There are at least 4 roundabouts at that interchange.  Turns out, I was in the wrong lane to make the exit to the restaurant and had to go through two more rounabouts.  I found another restaurant by the third round-about and I was in the correct lane to exit. Phew! I almost felt like I was circling the Arch in Paris!

A note to links: SF your road sign love story, silly and cute. KYC--I expected something to blow up!

I like the idea of speed bumps--I've lived on too many quiet streets that are abused by people motoring way to fast.  It's just stupid.  But then I see what happened to some of those lovely streets after the bumps are put in--Evanston IL is a good example. They suck to put it politely.

KYC ~
Very Masonic.

Long dream ~
I was too indirect: burn the bushes is more to the point.
Or, you could do as a man in town did when his grandchild was wiped out and dinged up by woman running behind one of those three wheel strollers while talking on her cell phone and failing to notice the tot owing to a shrub and split rail fence on the corner: throw a cable around it in the nighttime and pull the whole damn works out by the roots fence and all.

Oh yes, three lane roundies are the work of deranged optimists.

Longdream, I grew up in the New York metro area.  I remember my first few times driving in Manhattan.  Back then, way before their time, we had a ginormous yellow Jeep Cherokee (this was in 1971).  I would take it into Manhattan and cruise--I was the same color as a taxi but bigger.  My strategy was don't look in the rear view mirror.  I used the same strategy manuvering traffic circles in Bolzano Italy.

Even more confusing when done on the wrong side of the road not to mention the wrong side of the vehicle.
http://youtu.be/a3W1JzWJ5Z4

We have a "hammerhead" (acc. to IMarjorie's definition, though I had never heard it called that) going out the gate of our development, i.e., you have to turn right and circle left around a central grassy oval to make the left turn required to go left to the main road to get out of our main gate...And first, you have to STOP at the STOP sign at the exit, then make the right turn....

However, some impatient souls invariably looks left and seeing no traffic, will defy the plan and just go against the >> arrow sign and turn left, risking a head-on if someone comes quickly up the hill. Occasionally, a police car sits in the grassy oval and writes tickets. He usually get a day's quota right there!

Then to exit or enter the development, drivers must slow to a crawl to get over the speed humps parallel to the guard house where a human (Barnie Fife or Thelma Lou we call them) stops visitors and issues guest passes to those without the requisite little "Lake Arrowhead 1" sticker on the windshield. Likewise, in the local mall (using the term loosely, as it is a strip of stores, anchored by Belk and Bealls), there is a speed hump every 50 ft.

I can understand the feelings of the residents in neighborhoods which ask for the humps to keep speeding drivers down to a crawl when there are children playing outside, or just to preserve the quiet of the street, but that does not mean I like those streets, as a driver. In fact, if there is an alternative route, I will generally avoid the humped streets. Traffic circles are another aggravation. I much prefer the stop light, even if I have to sit at red when no cars are coming the other way. I count the seconds, and it seems I must stop for very few seconds in my total day's hours.

I did notice there are NO speed humps along the rails as our SepiaTrain clicks along the RR toward April 2012! Thank goodness no rail bumps! Love that smooth ride and hypnotic clickety clack for utter relaxation each night. Lie down Floyd! I turn my pillow over 3-4 times a night for the cool side, too. The only speed humps here are the obscure topics that garner fewer than 50 comments....Just sayin'.

Just back from a week in Albuquerque visiting my son.  Nice weather and nice visit, except for the wind (40-60 mph).  Speed bumps?  I think Jalopkin got it right.  In my 35 years here in Northern Virginia, I have replaced two broken axles, and I do not go that fast.  Some speed bumps are being replaced by speed "humps" which have a longer and flatter top so the car is not slammed.  And there have been lawsuits resulting in ambulance cuts so that ambulances are no jolted.  If you drive right, you can get the wheels on one side of the car in the cut and lessen the impact (driving in the cut would mean violating the central yellow line, a no-no).  God curses those who insist on installing them.

Wow Stoney!  I listened and watched and I am STILL CORNFUSED!!!  YAAAAAAAAAAH!

 Speed bumps are a necessary evil on residential streets where extreme southerners pay no mind to the speed limits traveling to major intesections.  TxDot has several choices, "the up and over" where you would have to go up and over the highway to get to the other side (obviously).  UNLESS the HIGHWAY itself goes 'up and over' and you go under it.  Then there is the "clover leaf" or exit and a looooooooooooong "U" turn and then there is the "Spaghetti Bowl"....

 Different Engineers over different districts and TxDot built what the Engineer approved.   Drivers just have to figure it out.... safely.

I guess what some call hammerheads we call clover leafs, but we have no "stop" signs - just "yield" signs....

I knew what you meant, Stoney. I just thought I'd be a little annoying.....;-D

There are a few complications to ripping and burning. The house on the corner is an old historic general store c. 1784 gone to seed, formerly occupied by the son of a wonderful 90-year-old couple, who still own the place. The son is a brand new felon who tried to blow up the neighborhood one day (don't ask). The bushes are various, tall, formerly flowering things like Rose of Sharon, etc. Because they belong to someone who once loved them, we have to be careful of their feelings, and especially cognizant of how vandalism will be viewed by the young.

(The cops and fire department are DIRECTLY across the street. I'd never get away with it.)

Marjorie--

It's in the manual: If you can't see them, they aren't there.

Cabbies are the biggest danger. You would think with the crop of Asian drivers who have owned the road for decades, there would be some more reverence and respect for others, but it doesn't seem to supersede the need to make the light. The good news: I don't think they hit anything much. They get lot of practice.

So, is the HAMMERHEAD named after what happens to you if you don't follow directions? Nothing like making things abundantly clear!

I'm not sure where the term hammerhead came from.  I googled it (actually I binged it, but whatever) and got nothing.  But what it describes is the outline of what the car does--you're going straight along, then you veer to the right and curve up  to right-angle the intersecting road. Then turn left back to intersect the road you were originally on. It's very convoluted. I was visiting NJ a few years ago in an area where they had a lot of hammerheads. What is so annoying about them is you are never sure which lane to be in if you want to turn left. I guess you can do what some moron did in front of my sister. He stopped in the left lane on a busy road with a green light.  My sister was in the left lane, probably going about 45 mph.  She stopped in time, but was rear-ended by the car behind her.  The moron took the left turn after oncoming traffic cleared--we never saw him again...

IMARJORIE Your driving method reminds me of my car maintenance method--hear a bad sound? Turn up the radio.

After viewing the video on round abouts I must confess I may have given the wrong impression......ours are actually called traffic calming devices!  And they are a much tighter/smaller version of the classic round about.  Indeed, emergency vehicles have had to find alternate routes in some cases. They consist of a one lane smallish circle with 4 exits with no other lanes....you just stay on 'til you get to the door you want.  The length between exits is very short, hardly worth putting your foot on the pedal.    I've experienced the "classic" roundabouts in the DC area (never again will I drive there!!!) and Boston (?).  Our traffic calmers are much calmer than those.....

Engine light come on?  Cover it with duct tape!

Speaking of Boston, is it true, Chef Deb, that traffic lights are only a suggestion?  Someone mentined that to me after having visited (via car).

Tomorrow I'm off to the Gulf Coast for a few days. Hurrah for me!  Try not to miss me.:-)

In a roundabout way, speed bumps are not all bad.

Hazel ~
The milk chocolate Hobnobs came today… yummo.

This video explains the workings of a roundabout. Our neighbor calls drivers who don't seem to get it, "Circle Jerks."

http://dotmedia.wi.gov/main/Viewer/?peid=6ea250de-497a-44ea-8a40-9a9ee9fb3956

I suppose just about the time you got used to laughing at the fakes, you would come upon a real one.

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/fake-potholes.shtml

I have never had a speeding ticket.  And I do drive.  For the last 40 some years.  I drive the speed limit is the thing, I don't care if someone's ahead of me, and if someone is riding my bumper I get out of his way.  Speed limit or maybe 5 over, that's it.  No tickets, no angst, and not a lot of trouble with speed bumps.  I don't understand wanting to go faster than the other guy - or slower.  Just the speed limit even if it makes no sense.  ... And in our former home in a gated community where staid brains and weak hearts ran the homeowner's association- the speed limit was 5.  That's it.  5.  Try to drive 5.  You can walk faster...but here's the thing:  if you get a ticket when you exceed 5, OR if one of your guests exceeds 5 - three of those tickets and you get a $300 fine.  Next one, a $500 fine.............................I learned to drive 5.  Cars aren't built to do 5 mph, you have to hold them back....but those folks didn't need speed bumps, as you can imagine.  A car wouldn't be able to get over a speed bump at 5.....what a place that was.  Happy to leave it.  (No, we never got a fine).

Ivan ~ Agreed!======================Years ago, in the parking lot of my parents' apartment complex, some bright soul chopped pass-throughs that were a little larger than the largest tire widths through the speed bums.  It was effective causing you to slow down without causing you to lose your entire undercarriage.=========AT first I thought the "bump in the road" was going to be a philosophical discussion about life, thank goodness it's only about a street.

Happpeee Birthday Jane!
Hope it's a chance to slow down and have a great day/evening, a speed bump of life, sorta.....wishing you a great day and a great year ahead!

You guys!  ;-D !!!! Re:  Hammerheads.  You have GOT to be kidding.   I'd have two chances of getting out of one alive.  That's right.  A slim one, and none at all.   

Park4 - I can relate to your description of the board members of your past homeowners' association...I live in a gated community with a board of residents in charge of rules, and sometimes we think of them as our Bored of Governance. We have posted speed limits of 25 mph, but hardly anyone except some new person or visitor goes that slowly. We have miles of hills and curves, and few cars on the narrow roads, so long time residents know exactly where the dips and potholes are, as well as where the road divides into one-ways, and comes back together for the 2ways.

The layout, hills, curves, holes, and washouts act as speed deterrents, so we don't need speed humps within the property. I can see why they have a speed hump at the entrance to slow the entering traffic for the guard to check credentials, but why - oh why - do we need another speed hump at the exit??? No logic to it at all.

If we were being honest, the fact that we can spill our beverages or damage our cars, probably proves the point.

SF, thank you so much. I had a lovely day. Calls from my sisters, brother and son and lunch out with my husband. He had a gig tonight, so I went and listened for a while.

SF...I just noticed the time of my last post...funny...
How's your sister doing?