Interesting concept, but I’m gonna be pissed if I have to navigate that crap on my motorcycle.

Okay, you’ve got to be kidding – this is good in theory but the sample video shows what a joke this system is in reality.

So you’re driving you’re Carrera S about 50-60mph in a 30 zone – I know none of YOU drive like that but let’s say someone else does. A tiny sign on the side of the road flashes “30mph Slow Down” and the next thing you know, the street instantly props up some giant bump out of nowhere and you’re Porsche is sent airborne about 25 feet, humbly crashing a la one of the famous Enzo crashes.

This is safe???? And what if the Porsche was going 70mph?? Do the makers of this “system” pay for the property and other damage(much less suspension damage) that occurs from its surprise bumps??

Great Idea.

I can just picture it now…

Guy speeding down a suburb street. Sign states the speed of the driver and says “slow down”(doesn’t state anything about a speed bump). Speed bump deploys, driver doesn’t see it, hits the bump at high speed, loses control of the car, and plows into a group of pedestrians walking on the sidewalk.

Great idea indeed.

Asher,
you beat me to it.

We have Radar activated signs around my college that show your speed, and if your over the speed limit they flash. This works well enough, because I wouldn’t normally notice that I am going 40 in a 35, and with my bike or my lowered 330ci, if a bump popped up in the street, that would really ruin my day.

Asher: hahaha…seriously dude, I can already imagine the cars flying for a short distance and crashing down somewhere, a la Grand Theft Auto. That’s just sick!

(V)ike:

Sounds like the sort of thing that would encourage people to slow down. Which is, after all, the point.

Probably works great, until it snows and the snowplow rips the thing out of the pavement, making a giant hole that brings traffic to a crawl while some construction crew drops metal plates over the thing till spring comes.

Speed bumps piss people off and are generally not too effective. They are often smoother to hit at high speed.
.
What is effective and basically does not piss people off, however, is what I call a speed dip. Basically I noticed those large “gutters” that cross a residential road to channel rainwater are understood as necessary by drivers, and like hell if you want to hit them at a good speed, especially in a low riding sportscar. Very effective, less anger. All around a winner situation that of course will never see the light of day.

I really hate speed bumps. I do not speed in residential areas, yet my car’s stiff FWD suspension makes me feel every bit of it and throw my steering line off. I see Camrys, Accords, Jettas and especially SUVs just plowing over them like no tomorrow at twice the posted limit or more.

Who really gets penalized here? Novel idea but still– it will only affect people in lower, sporty vehicles and bikes. The other traffic (I’m talking about trucks and SUVs now) will behave in exactly the same way as before.

the invention is a good idea, although it should maybe work in reverse. I.e. the system detects you are traveling at the correct speed and the speed bump retracts into the road surface. instead of raising up if your going too fast.

I think it’s a good idea. If you’re driving fast, you better be paying good attention and see that sign well before you get to it… otherwise you’re an accident waiting to happen and I’d much rather see you do an enzo style crash than hurt someone else because you’re not paying enough attention.

I don’t know if you have them in your area, but in my area we have those cameras that take a picture of you if you are running a red light. About a quarter mile before you get to the camera, you see a sign that warns you about the camera.

I have a feeling that the same methodology will be used here. All of us and our Cayman S’s will have plenty of time to slow down.

not trying to bust a bubble but you would drive around them – most cars as mentioned above are high nough to go over the vast majority of speed bumps in the uk any way.

what about Speeding Ambulances, police cars – ( before you say overide ( by who I can you imagine legal issues with that )

never mind most of them 4 L petrol hog things you drive in the US arnt capable of pulling the skin off a rice pudding – only kidding ( I had the pleasure of driving one of them chrysler caravans – caravan being appropriate to the speed it could muster) nice noise though !
however education would be more affective in combating the increasing culture of “up your’s mate im in a hurry get out of my way”, than a device which has the potential to train wanna be stunt drivers, lets see how much lift we can get lads – ( ALI G style )

I say raise the limits in residential neighborhoods to 90mph. Pedestrians will think twice before they decide to cross the street

I don’t think this invention will ever see the light of day. An underground hydraulic system that will probably break after the first snow… But I would like to see what happens if you just happen to catch a car in front of you by stomping on the gas and trigger the thing as they are headed over it.

Not discussed here is the possiblility that this unit can malfunction, causing any schlep traveling down the road to become airborne. This idea has the potential to kill people by raising the liklihood of a crash.

This is by far the most idiotic next to the 55 mph speed limit, ever to surface.

psshhh…. any good safe driver would know that you could just swing to the side so the tires go between the patches instead of over them

Things like this would never enter my mind. Who just sits around all day worrying about SPEEDING. Its not a real problem. Spend your energy elsewhere, like curing cancer.

****ty drivers, that is the real problem.

I am going to agree with Asher, this is a joke. Unless the installers and maintainers of this device want to open a new claims department from the crashed vehicles, they might want to reconsider.

“the invention is a good idea, although it should maybe work in reverse. I.e. the system detects you are traveling at the correct speed and the speed bump retracts into the road surface. instead of raising up if your going too fast.”

—Mak, that is a GREAT IDEA – In fact, that is GENIUS and would likely work. I know I sure as hell would slow down to 30mph if the Speed Bump in front of me would “disappear” into the ground as a result. I strongly suggest you contact this company with your idea or try and patent this reverse methodology before someone else(like me) does…

BTW, a quality idea from an LLN Poster?? Whoa – miracle – must be a newbie…lol

I think that they should make the bump disappear when you go above 30 mph. Now, I could support that.

Instead of homicidle road hazards, how about stricter drunk driving laws?

mak_, that is the most intelligent comment I have read on LLN in a long time. As asher stated, contact the company with your idea. Your one seemingly simple idea trumped all other scenarios about the speed bump jumping up to cause them harm. That makes this invention perfect for heavy traffic residential areas & doesnt cause any legal woes here in the US.

I’d rather have one of these speed bumps (that retracts if I am below the speed limit) than a solid speed bump always in my way.

Ricardo, speed bumps may feel smoother to hit at high speeds but you are doing more damage to your vehicle when you hit them at high speeds.

Snopesman, not everyone lives in the tundra & places are just getting warming by the year. I would expect this device would only be installed in southern places. Similar to lane reflectors. You don’t see them up north because they would get popped off by the snow plows.

As I wrote before, I would rather see a retracting speed bump than a permanent one. By creating a smooth road it rewards the desired behavior… slowing down in a particular area.

Dumb. What happens if there is snow on top of it, or better yet, wat happens if a snowplow hits it?

Practically speaking the chances of this happening are arbitrarily close to zero.

Radaraktiverte fartsdumper

Disse forferdelige fartsdumpene er noe alle hater, men det finnes nå løsninger som er langt bedre for de som er lovlydige.
Ved hjelp av en radar kan farten på bilen måles, og kjører du for fort vil fartsdumpene aktiveres. Kanskje like så effek…

[...] How do you slow people down without disrupting the travel of those obeying the speed limit? You create speed bumps that pop up only when someone is speeding. Speed bumps do a good job of penalizing non-speeders as much as speeders, and they typically force drivers to travel well below the speed limit. With that in mind, inventor Gwyn Harvey came up with a radar-activated speed bump design that would only deploy to slow drivers traveling at an unreasonable speed. [...]

[...] [via LeftLaneNews] [...]