Why doesn’t the Town install speed humps or speed bumps?
March 6, 2020
Speed humps and speed bumps are vertical obstacles in the road extending across a travel way to slow vehicle speeds. They are made of asphalt, concrete, plastic, rubber, or metal. The Town does not recommend installing speed humps or bumps on publicly maintained roads due to their lack of effectiveness, impediment to snow removal operations, and installation and maintenance costs.
Information provided by neighboring jurisdictions has shown that speed humps have not been effective at significantly reducing vehicle speeds, reducing speeds by only 1 or 2 mph and in some cases resulting in higher speeds.
Additional issues with speed humps include:
- Interference with emergency vehicle response times.
- Increased traffic noise levels from engines revving over the speed humps.
- Increased acceleration between the speed humps.
- Increase in vehicle exhaust emissions from acceleration after going over speed humps.