I saw recently that the city is revisiting the issue of adding of more speed humps. Granted, traffic speeds along in most areas, particularly neighborhoods, at an unprecedented speed. It’s a shame we don’t post speed limits – oh yeah, we do.
But speed humps are a joke. In my experience, and particularly since I live on a major access from Biltmore to Tunnel on Kenilworth Road, they are no deterrent to speeding. A real speed ‘bump’ maybe but not these little ripples in the lane. It’s the people who are passing through the neighborhood who go flying over them. Actually, if you observe for yourself some afternoon, you will notice that it’s the city buses that whip through the fastest. I kid you not. And these humps have no apparent effect on their speed.
But a while ago there was some kind of pipe being repaired that spanned from one side of Kenilworth Road to the other. Work completed, they filled the trench with gravel (awaiting asphalt). This became compacted into a slight trough. This trough was just deep enough to slow everybody down. Same effect as railroad tracks generally have.
So just maybe there is a more effective solution than the speed hump.
Xander Tremble
Asheville
