speed cushions

[Amanda P]

Here's a general overview from the Dft

... The gap between kerb and cushion edge should be 1m (0.75 m minimum). Cushions should not be located adjacent to drainage gullies in the carriageway surface.

Hmm. This is a problem if you don't want to move to less than a metre from the kerb.

You may want to remain in the centre of the lane to prevent silly overtaking, but be almost forced by a speed cushion to move to the left. You can be sure that this is the opportunity the numpty driver behind you will take to make the silly overtake you were aiming to prevent.

The alternative may be to bump over the speed cushion. And if you slow down to do this, said numpty is likely to get even more uptight than he already was....

This is a regular problem whenever I go to York via Huntington, which has speed cushions, chicanes, squeezes, pointless bike lanes, man-eating potholes and impatient bus drivers....

 

[Molecule Man]

I loathe them with a passion. In my experience, it doesn't slow most motorists down, it just causes them to veer from side to side as they try to straddle the bump. While some (maybe most) drivers will take care around cyclists, a significant number don't make any allowances and will veer alarmingly towards you if they overtake you while passing the bump.

The tactic I have developed is to ride in line with the middle of the left-most bump (which usually coincides with my normal line of travel anyway), and swerve around the left side of the bump at the last moment. It usually prevents drivers from attempting any stupid overtakes.

 

[HLaB]

90% of the time I think speed cushions would work if they just banned parking . On quiet side roads they seem to work fine, if there's no parking but on busy main roads with parking they are a disaster.

 

[benborp]

There is a stretch of road with speed cushions on my commute that is a nightmare. Twenty miles an hour limit, parking on both sides of the road, pedestrian crossing outside a school. I have no problem with the cushions, riding out of the door zone puts me down the outside of them. The problem is the way some motorists behave around them, thirty-five mph between bumps cutting in and braking sharply, driving on the wrong side of the road for a smooth line. Basically, they seem to be treated by many motorists as an obstacle that has been placed in their way which they are then entitled to find any method to bypass, even if that means driving in an unpredictable and dangerous way and becoming unaware of other objects that might be in the road - children and cyclists say.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

I loathe them with a passion. In my experience, it doesn't slow most motorists down, it just causes them to veer from side to side as they try to straddle the bump. While some (maybe most) drivers will take care around cyclists, a significant number don't make any allowances and will veer alarmingly towards you if they overtake you while passing the bump.

The tactic I have developed is to ride in line with the middle of the left-most bump (which usually coincides with my normal line of travel anyway), and swerve around the left side of the bump at the last moment. It usually prevents drivers from attempting any stupid overtakes.

Oh yes, those ones that go for the overtake, get about half the car past you, stamp on the brakes and swerve left to straddle the bump in that "I can't see the bike so I'm past it and it's not my problem anymore" kind of way .. meanwhile you get the opportunity to open the back passenger door and climb into the back seat. I nearly got done like that once or twice in my early days before I learnt about claiming the road and so forth.

 

[benborp]

Actually, I can think of two other stretches of road that I frequently ride on with cushions. One has caused me problems the other hasn't but does illustrate some of the counterproductive consequences of cushions. In neither case are there any parking complications and in neither case do the cushions do anything to limit speeds. One is dangerous in that the road is wide and it is impossible to cover the moves speeding, overtaking drivers make before turning left on a sweeping corner because of the positioning of the cushions on a bend in the road just before the turn. The other case is just amusing in that the primary line for cyclists is actually within the mandatory cycle lane because this is where most traffic drives in order to miss the cushions sitting in the road (less amusing is the fact that on the other side of the road there is no cycle lane and some drivers have realized that it is smoother to run two wheels in the gutter and two on the pavement).