Here’s why I ask. I was a student at Washington University in St. Louis back
in the late 1960s; while I was there, I was told several times that one of
the university’s deans had invented the speed bump a couple of decades
before, after his child had been killed by a speeding car.
I thought nothing of the story, until 1992, when I was told by a former
graduate student at Yale that one of Yale’s deans had invented them; same
story. At that point I realized I was dealing with an Urban Legend.
So who really invented them? And is there any truth to the child story?
Speed bumps are a primitive but effective device used for speed control in countries where policemen are sparse. It is very common to find them placed by local residents across dirt roads and the like way off in the williwags. I curse at them every time I drive in Brazil.
I’ll try to remember to ask my wife if she remembers “queibra-molas” (spring busters) existing in her early childhood. It’s hard to believe that these weren’t being used in developing countries before the sixties to control speed deamons.
They’re all over the place in Mexico. It’s curious, though, that generally speaking they’re a lot easier to go over when going fast! I’m talking rented Malibus or Crown Vics or Impalas (the newer style). With Suburbans, though, it sucks, and you really have to almost stop to go over them. Being rental cars all, I have no idea how well they fared in the long run, but comfort wise “cars” and “fast” were the solution to “topes” (Mexican word for the speed bumps; hell, even in English I was raised calling them moguls; “speed bumps” sounds kind of childlike).
Of course, I think the transit departments realize this, because slowly but surely they’re fielding a new type of speed bump that you really do have to slow down for. They’re not too plentiful yet, though, at least where I drive there.
And yes, I’m a good driver. I guess by “fast” I mean “driving the speed limit without slowing down for something as arbitrary as a mogul.”
With amazing synchronicity, I listened to a radio programme about the evolution of speedbumps this morning on my drive in to work (boy, do I know how to have a good time). This from the BBC radio 4 website (where you may well be able to listen to the 15 minute programme again, at least for the next few days)…
Of course, whether this predates the US bumps, I’m afraid I don’t know.
They were invented in Ancient China by that prescient road engineer, Ped Shing. In modern Pinyin, of course, his name is written as Ped Xing, and, to this day, we write his name on crosswalks in his honor.
I’ve been to Pompeii, and I honestly can’t recall any speed bumps. I do recall seeing sets of permanent “stepping stones” in the streets that were intended to let pedestrians cross with drey feet when the roads flooded in the rains (I don’t like to think about what was in the street water). There are “ruts” worn into the paving stones showing where the vehicle wheels went – they missed the raised paving stones, which wouldn’t have acted as bumps, therefore.
I might well be wrong, though. I didn’t see all of Pompeii, and it was some time ago. But the only street “furniture” I saw couldn’t have functioned as speed bumps.
As you suggest it does depend on the type of bumps. There are bumps that so harsh it’s jarring to drive over them even at single digit speeds. Sometimes it’s overkill; forcing people to slow down to 10 mph is excessive, and the newer bumps can damage vehicles. Not to mention slowing down emergency vehicles. I think a better approach would be to use bumps that have gaps in them. Drivers would pass through the gaps; they would have to slow down to negotiate the gaps, but not quite as much. And there wouldn’t be the vehicle damage.
I think the programme quoted from a translated Roman document of the time and it was claimed that the description of something ‘sounds like a flat-topped speed bump!’
But I missed what they actually said, so I may have misunderstood; the BBC site lists the programme but doesn’t give a transcript…
You are not acquainted with the horror of “speed humps.” These are significantly worse than your average speed bump. The difference being that the speed hump is longer (in the sense that you spend more time driving over it). It seems to elevate your car more than the normal speed bump and then sends you crashing back down much more harshly. I wonder what the rationale is with these? Perhaps people were just blowing past the normal speed bumps with abandon. Come to think of it, the only areas that I can think of seeing them are by schools.
I think I encountered one of these monsters before.
Back when my friend first moved into his apartment, I was going over to visit for the first time. I accidentally pulled into the wrong parking lot, and hit this HUUUGE speed bump which made my car do a whu-BANG whu-BANG. I wasn’t even going that fast, maybe 5-10 mph.
The speed bumps in my school’s parking garage are puny, and they don’t deter anyone. Cars are blazing around blind corners at 30 mph in there, its insane :eek:
I think I encountered one of these monsters before.
Back when my friend first moved into his apartment, I was going over to visit for the first time. I accidentally pulled into the wrong parking lot, and hit this HUUUGE speed bump which made my car do a whu-BANG whu-BANG. I wasn’t even going that fast, maybe 5-10 mph.
The speed bumps in my school’s parking garage are puny, and they don’t deter anyone. Cars are blazing around blind corners at 30 mph in there, its insane :eek:
Here in Panama, they are called policias muertos, or “dead policemen,” which I have always found pretty amusing. (Although this did lead to some quite macabre jokes during the Noriega years.)
In Belize they are also called “sleeping policemen,” no doubt due to the British influence.
They were invented by a Mr. Percy Shaw of Halifax (UK) during WWII. During the German bombing campaign vehicles which could be out after curfew started being fitted with headlamp covers to reduce their visibility from the air; cat eyes were installed on roads in the south of England to make the covered lamps more effective. The original plant was in Boothstown, which might be where your story and mine converge…
I don’t have a cite for that potted history- it’s what I was told in history class twelve-odd years ago, and I have a strong suspicion someone else will come along and debunk it in a minute.