“Speed bumps” reach middle-age

Like them or hate them the speed bump / sleeping policeman celebrates its 40th Anniversary. They originated from America much earlier, but in Britain we waited until 1983 before they were deemed necessary to help calm speedy road users.

There are now over 42,000 across the UK, with a massive growth in the 1990’s as part of other forms of (physical and psychological) traffic calming.

In Europe, they first appeared in 1970 in the Netherlands. In England they were quickly dubbed ‘sleeping policemen’: in France they’re less euphemistically known as «dos d’âne»: ‘donkey backs’.

The Highways (Road humps) Regulations 1999 defines that humps are:

• at least 900mm long, max. 25-100mm high
• front-facing height max. 6mm
• max. gradient 1:10 (10%)
• placed at a right angle to an imaginary centre line
• installed only on roads with a max. speed limit of 30mph
• more than 30m from any PedEx
• more than 20m from a level crossing if the speed limit above 20mph
• not within 25m of a bridge / tunnel crossing the highway
• NOT where there is no street lighting if speed limit exceeds 20mph