speed humps and traffic calming
-
- Posts: 375
- Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:02 pm
speed humps and traffic calming
Postby tubby74 » Fri Jul 20, 2012 3:26 pm
due to some busy bodies in the local group, we've now got speed humps installed, the kind that are two small humps, one for each lane. in the last 2 weeks I;'ve been run off the road by a car trying to get their passenger tyre around the outside, and also had an incident when some elderly cyclists decided to veer out into the middle of the road to get through the gap without looking at what was around then. This is quite apart from the noise that keeps several houses up all night.
Council also objects to these humps, RMS insists on them. the community group who wants them ignore all conflicting input. Councillors and mayor feel they can do nothing. Got a group of residents very angry about these things being installed, does anyone have any experience to offer in how best to get these things removed? Other than pitchforks, a jerry can and some matches
- Bentnose
- Posts: 1327
- Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 9:00 am
- Location: N/E suburbs Melbourne, Victoria
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby Bentnose » Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:45 pm
-
- Posts: 1569
- Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:56 pm
- Location: brisbane, 4101
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby lethoso » Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:59 pm
I think you're making a little bit of a mountain out of a molehill (or speed hump in this case I guess) but you're mostly right - traffic calming is generally bad for cyclists.tubby74 wrote:Background : relatively quiet suburban street, never had any problems in 12 years even though it is a minor short cut for some light trucks and cars
due to some busy bodies in the local group, we've now got speed humps installed, the kind that are two small humps, one for each lane. in the last 2 weeks I;'ve been run off the road by a car trying to get their passenger tyre around the outside, and also had an incident when some elderly cyclists decided to veer out into the middle of the road to get through the gap without looking at what was around then. This is quite apart from the noise that keeps several houses up all night.
Council also objects to these humps, RMS insists on them. the community group who wants them ignore all conflicting input. Councillors and mayor feel they can do nothing. Got a group of residents very angry about these things being installed, does anyone have any experience to offer in how best to get these things removed? Other than pitchforks, a jerry can and some matches
Ride big through the speed humps - if you're getting run off the road you're too far left. Claim your place in the road (it's a suburban street with traffic calming, anyone who objects to you doing this is the arsehole) and you won't get anyone forcing you out. If they're the kind I'm thinking of you should be able to hit them at a decent pace with no issue - certainly faster than a car can take them.
As for getting the removed - good luck. Maybe go door to door with a petition or something, but personally I don't think you have much chance.
- il padrone
- Posts: 22931
- Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:57 pm
- Location: Heading for home.
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby il padrone » Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:03 pm
"An unjustified and unethical imposition on a healthy activity."
- Mulger bill
- Super Mod
- Posts: 29060
- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:41 pm
- Location: Sunbury Vic
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby Mulger bill » Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:30 pm
Works for me.Bentnose wrote:I find they're good for getting air off.
Council installed 'em in a street I used to live in, nice bit of road with bikelanes/parking each side. Clowns used to roar around 'em in the bikelane so council decided to fix it in a way that makes riders lives even harder. G Map Mitchells Lane, Sunbury if you like.
London Boy 29/12/2011
- Mulger bill
- Super Mod
- Posts: 29060
- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:41 pm
- Location: Sunbury Vic
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby Mulger bill » Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:50 pm
London Boy 29/12/2011
- il padrone
- Posts: 22931
- Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:57 pm
- Location: Heading for home.
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby il padrone » Fri Jul 20, 2012 8:39 pm
Since this Streetmap image they've further improved them (and narrowed them) by putting tabletops alongside in the traffic lane, with wider concrete plinths
"An unjustified and unethical imposition on a healthy activity."
- Mulger bill
- Super Mod
- Posts: 29060
- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:41 pm
- Location: Sunbury Vic
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby Mulger bill » Fri Jul 20, 2012 10:33 pm
If there is a roads or municipal engineer on board here, please tell me exactly what the hell those little islands are supposed to achieve.
London Boy 29/12/2011
-
- Posts: 3056
- Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 2:54 pm
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby zero » Sat Jul 21, 2012 1:53 am
It would depend on the designer.Mulger bill wrote:What the ....???
If there is a roads or municipal engineer on board here, please tell me exactly what the hell those little islands are supposed to achieve.
it was probably originally just meant to be a visual narrower (which discourages speeding by reducing apparent space on the road), that they've decided to try let the bikes on the other side. It does have the utility of being a very "interesting" enforcer for the halfwits that drive offset in a line of traffic - but one imagines the first halfwit to do that there will in fact sue the council for damages after the inevitable.
There is one on Anzac Parade here, that is both perpetually full of crap, and corked by a car parked at the far end of it that has been there for 100% of my rides past it. As per usual, I change lanes before it...
- il padrone
- Posts: 22931
- Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:57 pm
- Location: Heading for home.
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby il padrone » Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:27 pm
The pseudo-bike lanes* have been there for over 20 years AFAIK, long before the splitter islands were installed. Yes, they were visual narrowing devices to slow traffic speeds (50kmh residential road), but the stupid thing is all the road crap, leaves, pine-needles, branches, pine-cones etc. gathers in the bike lane. Street sweepers cannot get in there so the bike-lane conditions become hazardous. I mostly ride just to the right of the white line. Now with the traffic tables it makes the road ride a bumpy one, and at one of the narrowing points, the bike lane is restricted to <120cm, just after a bend, with close roadside busheszero wrote:it was probably originally just meant to be a visual narrower (which discourages speeding by reducing apparent space on the road), that they've decided to try let the bikes on the other side. It does have the utility of being a very "interesting" enforcer for the halfwits that drive offset in a line of traffic - but one imagines the first halfwit to do that there will in fact sue the council for damages after the inevitable.
* even today I don't think there is a bike sign on a pole (legal requirement), just a bike logo on the lane.
"An unjustified and unethical imposition on a healthy activity."
-
- Posts: 5470
- Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2007 2:23 pm
- Location: Yangebup
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby Baalzamon » Sun Jul 22, 2012 12:16 am
Like my trike could get thru that, sorry I'm taking car lane and taking a speed bump, or I'm one side on dirt/grass above kerb and avoiding speed bumps.Mulger bill wrote: G Map Mitchells Lane, Sunbury if you like.
- Mulger bill
- Super Mod
- Posts: 29060
- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:41 pm
- Location: Sunbury Vic
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby Mulger bill » Sun Jul 22, 2012 10:02 pm
London Boy 29/12/2011
-
- Posts: 375
- Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:02 pm
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby tubby74 » Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:23 am
lethoso wrote:
Ride big through the speed humps - if you're getting run off the road you're too far left. Claim your place in the road (it's a suburban street with traffic calming, anyone who objects to you doing this is the arsehole) and you won't get anyone forcing you out. If they're the kind I'm thinking of you should be able to hit them at a decent pace with no issue - certainly faster than a car can take them.
As for getting the removed - good luck. Maybe go door to door with a petition or something, but personally I don't think you have much chance.
unfortunately it's not a case of simply claiming the lane always. the road isn't very wide, 3 car widths, so sometimes it's single car at a time, sometimes it's wide enough for cars to get by no matter what you do. The problem then is they see the bump and react to try and get through it as best they can. One is placed outside my house and we have a small cut through type street beside us. We've had more than one car decide at the last minute to avoid the speed hump to turn down the street only to not make it, ending up with wheels on the kerb. And this is a street kinds have to cross to get to school.
The safety issue is only part of the problem, but that's the part I was hoping for advise on from here as it's a safety focused forum. The other issue is of course the noise. Bumps are noisy, tradies with their gear in the back, 4wd's that hit without slowing make a racket at all hours, and probably just as bad are the people who slow to a crawl then rev the engine to get back up to speed.
I got confronted by another irate neighbour this week so we're gathering momentum from people affected, the trouble seems to be anyone we can complain to (council, state MP) just says they cannot do anything, its the RMS's call. And the RMS has no complaints process apart from email which they ignore.
-
- Posts: 3056
- Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 2:54 pm
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby zero » Mon Jul 23, 2012 5:17 pm
The council is in fact capable of contacting the RMS on your behalf and registering a complaint on your behalf, and requesting a representative show up to a meeting on your behalf. They just can't be bothered unless you bug them sufficiently.
- jules21
- Posts: 10555
- Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:14 pm
- Location: deep in the pain cave
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby jules21 » Tue Jul 24, 2012 2:05 pm
i don't understand how RMS can "insist" on them - if it's a "quiet suburban street", usually that means it's under control of the council.tubby74 wrote:Background : relatively quiet suburban street, ..
Council also objects to these humps, RMS insists on them.
- trailgumby
- Posts: 15469
- Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:30 pm
- Location: Northern Beaches, Sydney
- Contact:
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby trailgumby » Tue Jul 24, 2012 3:24 pm
That's correct.jules21 wrote:i don't understand how RMS can "insist" on them - if it's a "quiet suburban street", usually that means it's under control of the council.tubby74 wrote:Background : relatively quiet suburban street, ..
Council also objects to these humps, RMS insists on them.
After a couple of meetings that will inevitably go nowhere quickly ("government pace" for change being inevitably glacial), you can actually turn that slowness to respond to your advantage.
Alternative two is for a handful of neighbours to buy a crowbar each and organise a nocturnal mission (not that type!) and resolve the problem yourselves.
It then becomes much harder and politically more difficult in view of the agitation by residents against them to then go back and put it in over the top of their concerns. At worst you'll have a couple of years noise free while they dither about how to respond to your civil disobedience.
-
- Posts: 3056
- Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 2:54 pm
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby zero » Tue Jul 24, 2012 3:47 pm
If the road is classified, the RMS is allowed to act as the road authority. Classifications include the "secondary" road classification - which is a road that relieves some burden from a more important road.jules21 wrote:i don't understand how RMS can "insist" on them - if it's a "quiet suburban street", usually that means it's under control of the council.tubby74 wrote:Background : relatively quiet suburban street, ..
Council also objects to these humps, RMS insists on them.
- jules21
- Posts: 10555
- Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:14 pm
- Location: deep in the pain cave
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby jules21 » Tue Jul 24, 2012 3:51 pm
correct me if i'm wrong, but this is unlikely to include local backstreets?zero wrote:If the road is classified, the RMS is allowed to act as the road authority. Classifications include the "secondary" road classification - which is a road that relieves some burden from a more important road.
-
- Posts: 375
- Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:02 pm
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby tubby74 » Wed Jul 25, 2012 10:06 am
Seems that the residents who pushed for the 40 zone in the suburb do not actually live on the route that is affected, and are avoiding any input on the matter.
btw, the comment about the bumps being good for air, well they aren't that big but during school holidays a couple of them were in regular use by kids on scooters
- jules21
- Posts: 10555
- Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:14 pm
- Location: deep in the pain cave
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby jules21 » Wed Jul 25, 2012 11:13 am
- il padrone
- Posts: 22931
- Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:57 pm
- Location: Heading for home.
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby il padrone » Wed Jul 25, 2012 5:08 pm
"An unjustified and unethical imposition on a healthy activity."
- jules21
- Posts: 10555
- Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:14 pm
- Location: deep in the pain cave
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby jules21 » Wed Jul 25, 2012 5:13 pm
VicRoads north of the borderil padrone wrote:Who or what is RMS anyway?
- trailgumby
- Posts: 15469
- Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:30 pm
- Location: Northern Beaches, Sydney
- Contact:
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby trailgumby » Wed Jul 25, 2012 6:44 pm
Rudely Managed Streets.jules21 wrote:VicRoads north of the borderil padrone wrote:Who or what is RMS anyway?
-
- Posts: 375
- Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:02 pm
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby tubby74 » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:16 pm
- Mulger bill
- Super Mod
- Posts: 29060
- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 2:41 pm
- Location: Sunbury Vic
Re: speed humps and traffic calming
Postby Mulger bill » Wed Jul 25, 2012 10:39 pm
Lemme guess, the only thing that really changed was the name and masthead on the website? Same poor practices run by the same people?tubby74 wrote:roads and maritime, was the RTA until barry decided to make his sweeping changes and rename things
If you can't do anything make it look like you're doing something
London Boy 29/12/2011
Return to “Cycling Safety and Advocacy”
- General Australian Cycling Topics
- Info / announcements
- Buying a bike / parts
- General Cycling Discussion
- The Bike Shed
- Cycling Health
- Cycling Safety and Advocacy
- Women's Cycling
- Bike & Gear Reviews
- Cycling Trade
- Stolen Bikes
- Bicycle FAQs
- The Market Place
- Member to Member Bike and Gear Sales
- Want to Buy, Group Buy, Swap
- My Bikes or Gear Elsewhere
- Serious Biking
- Audax / Randonneuring
- Retro biking
- Commuting
- MTB
- Recumbents
- Fixed Gear/ Single Speed
- Track
- Electric Bicycles
- Cyclocross and Gravel Grinding
- Dragsters / Lowriders / Cruisers
- Children's Bikes
- Cargo Bikes and Utility Cycling
- Road Racing
- Road Biking
- Training
- Time Trial
- Triathlon
- International and National Tours and Events
- Cycle Touring
- Touring Australia
- Touring Overseas
- Touring Bikes and Equipment
- Australia
- Western Australia
- New South Wales
- Queensland
- South Australia
- Victoria
- ACT
- Tasmania
- Northern Territory
- Country & Regional
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Amazon [Bot]
- All times are UTC+10:00
- Top
- Delete cookies
About the Australian Cycling Forums
The Australian Cycling Forums is a welcoming community where you can ask questions and talk about the type of bikes and cycling topics you like.
Bicycles Network Australia
Forum Information
Connect with BNA
This website uses affiliate links to retail platforms including ebay, amazon, proviz and ribble.