Regarding the total ROAD HUMPS in the UK (a) how much have they cost (b) how many tonnes CO2 have they caused?

Question

I am very concerned about the environmental damage caused by road humps.. the constant slowing down and re-accelerating must cause MASSIVE amounts of CO2 emissions across the UK as a whole.

Answer 1

Road / Speed humps are extremely popular the world over as an effective traffic calming measure. However there are many negatives to them;

In 2003, the chairman of the London Ambulance Service, Sigurd Reinton was reported as claiming that delay due to speed bumps was responsible for up to 500 avoidable deaths from cardiac arrest each year, however, he later denied the statement.

Research in the USA from Boulder, Colorado suggests that for every life saved by traffic calming, as many as 85 people may die because emergency vehicles are delayed.

Each speed hump slows the average fire engine by 3-4 seconds and an ambulance by 10 seconds.

The Association of British Drivers is critical of speed humps claiming Drivers are distracted by the bumps, therefore ignoring other hazards such as children.

(a) On average a road / speed hump cost from £500 to £4 850, the upper range being for the latest "smart hump" which reduce or eliminate negative effects of speed bumps such as increased noise and pollution, uneven traffic speed, and impeding emergency vehicles. Traffic tables can cost upto £10 000.

I have been unable to find a figure for the total number of speed humps, however statistics from Edinburgh Council Meeting Questions & Answers state there are 794 in Edinburgh, which has a population of 448 624, or about 1.77 per 1 000 residents. This is a lower figure as it does not include private developments. Taking the Edinburgh figure and muliplying it by the UK population of 60 609 153 this would equate to 107 269 speed humps in the UK (however this is a very unstatistical analysis of the total).

(b) Speed humps cause atmospheric pollution from the speeding up and slowing down of traffic between the humps. For example, TRL reports a 59% increase in CO, about 50% increase in HC and about 25% in CO2 from petrol catalyst vehicles averaged over all types of traffic calming measures, with even higher numbers over more "severe" measures such as speed bumps. In addition the use of bumps and cushions seems to encourage the use of larger vehicles which are more polluting.

I hope this has gone some way to helping answer your question.

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