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Previous: Keyboard box | Main | Next: USB storage watch
March 23, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Broken speed limit
An anonymous reader sends in this picture from Rocky Hill, New Jersey: a 25 mph speed limit sign, then a few yards later a 35 mph sign, then a few yards later a 25 mph sign. Have fun gunning the engine for 0.2 seconds before hitting the brakes again!
hey speeed hump is better then speed table I think.. but not sure.. I like speed bump best myself.. or they could get all technical and have the sign say speed control device ahead..'
speed table makes me think i'll see some benchs next to it.. LOL.. anybody else seen any other crazy ways cities have renamed speed bumps?
Black-on-yellow signs are NOT "Speed Limit" signs. They are cautionary signs indicating that you may wish to slow down to "this" speed, but which do not actually change the maximum speed limit.
Black-on-white signs set a maximum legal speed limit for a given stretch of road. They are countermanded only by black-on-orange (construction or emergency-use signs), traffic cops, or other such implements.
This is not broken. Nothing to see here. Move along.
When I was in grad school, there was a long stretch of wide, mixed-use road near my house, on which the only visible speed limit sign read 35. One time when my parents and brother were visiting I was driving the four of us on that road and I got pulled over for going 35MPH, right next to the 35MPH speed limit sign. Apparently there was an unposted speed limit of 25 for most of the street, because at the very very top (which was a cul-de-sac) there was a 25MPH sign facing up. So unless you lived at the very top of the hill there was no way to know the actual speed limit.
Of course I challenged it in court, and the traffic cop didn't even show up, but that was still a huge pain in the ass and I had to pay the court fees anyway.
Now that was broken.
This, not so bad.
"or they could get all technical and have the sign say speed control device ahead.."
How about.... Velocity reducing extrusion?
I agree: broken. Or, at least, a tad psychophrenic. (Yes, I know that that's an inaccurate use of the term, but "showing signs of Dissociative Identity Disorder" doesn't have the same ring.)
MORE IMPORTANTLY: Regarding "Velocity reducing extrusion" - we've got various speed devices out here, ranging from things you have to swerve around to things you have to carefully drive between. The warning signs all say "Caution: traffic calming ahead"
Traffic calming ahead?
It's always seemed more like a forecast than a warning.
The speed limit is 35 on that road, however if you don't wish to get your front ned aligned you do 25 on speed humps. Believe me you want to do 25!!!
Broken! Even with the technicality of a black-and-white sign versus black-and-yellow sign, why contradict the signs within only a few yards? Ridiculous. And broken.
traffic calming: every time i see one of those signs i think of a cozy grandma pouring nice hot tea to soothe the nerves of anxious autos while gently talking with them about their troubles.
there, there.
OK, its hump or death...You've got 5 seconds to make up your mind...hump - death - hump - death. . . .
Only someone who failed (or at least should have failed) their driving test would be confused by this.
Speed humps, bumps or whatever are broken in general, and so are the idiot neighborhood association dorks who ask for them. They are a nuisance.
I think before any "traffic calming" crap can be put on a road, someone should have to appear in court and show that someone -- anyone -- has ever been killed or even injured on that road, ever. Even once. Just one person. Show me. I don't care if it was fifty years ago. Show me one person.
And then, if they can show that, only then can a bump be installed, but listen: it must be a bump that I can drive over at the POSTED speed limit. If it's 35 mph, then I want to be able to drive over that thing at 35 mph without getting my teeth rattled out of my head.
I'm so sick of slowing down to 15 in a 30 mph zone on every damned block just because a bunch of ninnies got together and did something to make us all "safer."
Thank you. I feel better.
No I don't.
It scares me how many people don't know understand signs and yet drive anyway. Not only not broken, but informative for people with a clue.
I have also found that some people are clueless about the differences between "Maximum Speed" signs and "Speed Limit" signs.
I'm surprised at how many people think the yellow signs are speed limits.
In college we had a clueless female friend that we convinced that stop signs with white borders were optional. She got pulled over.. lol..
You guys got it all wrong.
This is a training ground for new drivers learning to drive a stick. (vroomscreechvroomscreechvroomscreech).
If they didn't have the 35 sign posted every 100yds, they'd have to give the new drivers a ticket everytime they let out the clutch.
The govt is broken. They hire guys to put up signs and guys to take down signs. Obviously, the guys who put up the signs are way ahead of the guys who take down the signs. Which doean't surprise me...there is still a "Reduce Speed - Men at Work" sign on a street near me that has been there for over a year and I have yet to see any one working any where near it. No one slows down there anymore.
I believe that The orange signs say 25MPH. The sign that says 30 is probably in metric: Kilometers per hour.
I've seen things like this in small towns. They need to raise some money, and having a speed trap like that is the easiest way! I got pulled over in Oklahoma once (in the middle of a small town) because the speedlimit went from 45 to 35 in a distance that makes it impossible to slow down in time. The cop didn't care, either. He just sits at that one spot all day and tickets innocent people who fall victim to that trap.
solid yellow signs are precatutionary, dont state the law. white signs state the law. And maybe its just me, but the white 35 MPH sign looks a BIT chopped. I think its just a clever photoshop job.
OH BAHAHAHAH! We've all been had!
It IS PhotoShop'ed. No question. (zoom in, it's pretty obvious.)
We've got a bit of egg on our faces.
I am quite sure that this is in fact NOT photoshoped. If you look carefully you can see the bottom of the post. The reason it looks cut off is that it is back a little from the side of the road and there is a weed leaning in front of it.
My guess is that this place is an area where speeding has been a problem in the past and the speed hump was added to ensure that people slow down. The speed sign probably predates the speed hump.
Also please note that the first sign is simply a warning about the second sign and that there is actually only one hump.
Chris, if you or one of your loved ones (by the sound of your rant you dont have kids) got run over maybe they should be covered with asphalt thus creating the speed hump in the right place. Cost of asphalt: $200, Front end alignment $125, cost of human life: see cost of asphalt.
I may not have kids at the moment, but I do live in an area where a few neighbors did convince the government to put in some speed humps (humps are different from bumps) in our area. They put up 20 speed bumps spaced roughly 500 feet apart! They lay along a back road I have to traverse everyday. I may admit that people did speed along this road, however I'm in no way convinced that the street is any safer. People now veer off into the gutter to avoid as much of the bump as possible, meanwhile dodging trash cans, and parked cars. We also occasionally get some gallivanting teenagers that now joy ride down our street going in excess of 50 miles per hour in jacked up trucks, or jeeps. The cost of concrete may be $200, but your waaaay off in how much it costs to lay them! The cost is much more.
I never signed the petition for these, and now many of the neighbors that did regret there decision. On a side note, one of the main advocates (got ball rolling on this project) of these speed humps divorced and moved not more than 6 months after their installment, I'll have to live with them for life.
Access Safe Streets, and the city of Portland Maine have gone on record to reported that speed bumps:
-Delay emergency vehicles by 13 seconds for each speed bump.
-Aggravate conditions associated with spinal and neck disorders.
-Increase the cost of vehicle maintenance by 50%.
-Increase neighborhood air pollution by 48%.
-Increase the instances of road rage.
-Decrease property values and increase the length of time homes stay on the market.
-Increase pedestrian deaths because drivers drive erratically to avoid the bump.
-Increase in death and permanent injury as a result of emergency vehicle delays.
The yellow signs in Jersey (all states??) are recommended safe speeds signs. You usually see them on sharp turns, or like this case, when there is a huge bump/hole in the road.
You guys should read the driver's license manual soemtime - it's amazing what you learn.
Maybe you should stop driving. Everyone, well almost, knows yellow speed limit signs are recommended or suggested speeds. Not actual.
when you see a speed limit sign, do you go that speed or do you have to wait til you pass that sign? i was caught in the tickfaw, la speed trap that is well know by 60 minutes.
Comments on this entry are closed
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It looks like maybe the white sign was there first and then when the speed bump was placed there, they put in the 25mph signs warning about the speed bump.
I would have to say the entire idea of changing "speed bumps" to "speed humps" is completely broken
Posted by: john russell at March 23, 2006 12:23 AM