# Who invented speed bumps? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116 "2004-06-07T16:48:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_J.Stamler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/67e7ee/32.png) [@Paul\_J.Stamler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_J.Stamler)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/1 "2004-06-07T16:48:36Z")
Who invented speed bumps? 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? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/2 "2004-06-07T20:00:32Z")
I don’t know the answer to the OP, but it sounds like something mis-remembered from the _Grapes of Wrath_ by John Steinbeck > [@](#): > > Tom pulled across into the opposite road. A few hundred yards, and then he stopped. A high wire fence faced the road, and a wide-gated driveway turned in. A little way inside the gate there was a small house with a light in the window. Tom turned in. The whole truck leaped into the air and crashed down again. > > “Jesus!” Tom said. “I didn’ even see that hump.” > > A watchman stood up from the porch and walked to the car. He leaned on the side. “You hit her too fast,” he said. “Next time you’ll take it easy.” > > “What is it, for God’s sake?” > > The watchman laughed. “Well, a lot of kids play in here. You tell folks to go slow and they’re liable to forget. But let 'em hit that hump once and they don’t forget.” This was published in 1939, so we know that speed bumps existed as early as then. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/3 "2004-06-07T20:22:42Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/4 "2004-06-07T20:38:23Z")
> [@Paul J. Stamler](#): > > Who invented speed bumps? Could it have been…_ **Satan?!!** _ Oh, and **minor7flat5** , you don’t want to go driving around anywhere on the Yucatan Peninsula, either! ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/5 "2004-06-07T20:58:49Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Speed bumps are a primitive but effective device used for speed control in countries where policemen are sparse… I curse at them every time I drive in Brazil. 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.” ---
**Author:** ![Xerxes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/d2c977/32.png) [@Xerxes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xerxes)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/6 "2004-06-08T11:30:43Z")
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)… > [@](#): > > Love them or hate them, road humps have a secret history, as Joe Kerr uncovers on a journey which takes him from Blackbird Leys council estate near Oxford - where the prototype hump was first tested in Britain - to Delft in the 1960s and the philosophy of the Dutch voonerf as pioneered by Joost Vahl. Of course, whether this predates the US bumps, I’m afraid I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/7 "2004-06-08T14:26:26Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/8 "2004-06-08T14:28:02Z")
> [@Xerxes](#): > > With amazing synchronicity, I listened to a radio programme about the evolution of speedbumps this morning on my drive in to work. The same programme claimed that the Romans had a type of speedbump in use in Pompeii - but I was interupted and missed the detail! Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/9 "2004-06-08T14:37:58Z")
> [@](#): > > The same programme claimed that the Romans had a type of speedbump in use in Pompeii - but I was interupted and missed the detail! Sorry. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/10 "2004-06-08T14:50:34Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > 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). > > (snip) > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/11 "2004-06-08T14:52:15Z")
I noticed unofficial speed bumps on the open road in India. They looked like a week-by-week proposition. CalMeacham, that was very bad. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/12 "2004-06-08T16:07:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ve been to Pompeii, and I honestly can’t recall any speed bumps. 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… ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/13 "2004-06-08T18:04:04Z")
I remember my dad telling me he used to pour gas on speed bumps do get rid of them. Does that even work? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/14 "2004-06-08T18:29:08Z")
Apropos of nothing, in the UK I’ve heard the humps referred to as “sleeping policemen”, which really tickles me for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/15 "2004-06-08T18:53:00Z")
Botts’ Dots are the small round bumps on the lines between lanes that rumble as you move out of your lane. They really were invented by a Mr. Botts! Per my brother the engineer. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/16 "2004-06-08T19:56:35Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/17 "2004-06-08T20:11:15Z")
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: ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/18 "2004-06-08T20:18:52Z")
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: ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/19 "2004-06-08T20:58:34Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Apropos of nothing, in the UK I’ve heard the humps referred to as “sleeping policemen”, which really tickles me for some reason. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116/20 "2004-06-08T21:01:39Z")
> [@MaryEFoo](#): > > Botts’ Dots are the small round bumps on the lines between lanes that rumble as you move out of your lane. > > They really were invented by a Mr. Botts! Per my brother the engineer. You mean cat eyes? 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 **Booth** stown, 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. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-invented-speed-bumps/249116.md?page=2)