November 16, 2005
Traffic Stuff
Traffic Stuff
A question: Speed Humps or Speed Bumps? What do you call them?
I grew up calling them speed bumps. I've never heard them referred to as anything other than speed bumps. A road I drive to and from The Boy's school just installed two of them along with warning signs that say "Speed Hump." Humps is an ugly word and makes me giggle when I read it. Speed Bump. Not Speed Hump.
On this same stretch of road (I think the residents must think they have a speeding problem, although I'm not the problem) those automatic speed reader sign things are often set up -- you know the ones that flash lights and yell at you if you are speeding. When they show up on the road they are usually set up to flash when one exceeds the posted speed limit of 30 mph. Sometimes the brilliant people decide to set the signs to flash at you when you exceed the advisory speed on the yellow warning signs. I try not to speed and I don't like getting yelled at by a sign when I am 8 miles under the posted limit. Hmph.
I take those signs as a challenge. And not always a challenge to go slower, either.
Posted by: Busy Mom at November 17, 2005 12:12 AMSpeed Humps?
Never heard it.
Speed Bumps around here.
Man could we use some on our street. But that would seem so....trailer parkish and that would NOT make people happy!
The limit on our street is 35 but we get speeders all the time.
I called the Culligan company one day because their driver FLEW by my house at probably 50 not one but three times.
I called, she was upset and on his way back out he was trolling at about 15.
lol
Makes me think she gave him a call.
Always called them 'speed bumps' meself -- 'speed hump' sounds more (to me, anyhoo) like a euphemism for a quickie in the back of a Chevy van...
Posted by: LDH at November 17, 2005 09:09 AMLDH, That's what I meant by making me giggle. I can't quite escape my inner fourth grader.
Posted by: Jordana at November 17, 2005 09:11 AMAbout 600,000 google hits for speed humps and over 2 million for speed bumps. A lot of the humps were European. Is this near that German hippie school? And I'm glad my teenage boys have never seen this sign, 'cause you know what they think about every 9 seconds (or is it 22 seconds?)
Posted by: earth girl at November 17, 2005 12:11 PMSpeed bumps, definitely speed bumps. The alternative is just too... silly.
Posted by: Sarah G. at November 17, 2005 12:59 PMI prefer "bump," but either is preferable to the British "sleeping policeman."
Ahhh, yes, you were in Alaska when the term "speed hump" first came into use here with much fanfare. Metro Public Works began making them in two sizes, with different names for the two varieties. One size is called bump, the other is called hump. And yes, it is silly.
Near my daughter's school there's a series of bumps with a ridiculous number of signs warning "Speed Bump!" My son LOVES them. We've got a deal-if he asks in a nice tone of voice with a please (we've been working and working and working on that skill @@) before we exit the school parking lot, we can go home using the route that takes us over the bumps. He announces and then counts each one.
Posted by: nina at November 18, 2005 10:50 AMPeople used to speed all the time on my parents' street. So the county put in road cutouts -- didn't help (my sister was quoted in the paper: "They don't slow me down!"). Next, the county put in speed bumps -- one very near my parents' driveway. The commuters hated it and used to honk as they went over every bump. So my dad put a sign in the yard -- "Honk if you love Jesus." That took care of the honking problem, anyway.
Posted by: Sarah at November 18, 2005 12:14 PM
Jordana Adams, Chief Pontificator