World's first green speed bumps?
How can a speed bump be green? Simple. If it does its job right and rewards low speed driving and punishes speeding, it can reduce gas consumption and exhaust emissions. That's exactly what these new smart speed bumps aim to do. Sprung from the fertile minds of designers Jae-yun Kim and Jong-Su Lee, they use an inner damper to detect vehicle speed and if it is slow enough, the bump flattens. If the car is going too fast it remains upright and does what any good speed bump should. It punishes the driver and tells him or her to slow down for the next one.
The designers say their goal was to encourage drivers to maintain a constant slow speed, reducing the amount of stops and starts made, and thereby the amount of fuel consumption and exhaust pollution from the car. The worlds first green speed bumps? These new smart speed bumps are just a concept for now, but hopefully they will be put into production soon.
[Source: Autoblog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Arnold Schneider 11:02AM (12/13/2008)
Great. I like that.
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oollyoumn 11:33AM (12/13/2008)
Now they just need to generate electricity also.
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GoodCheer 1:02PM (12/13/2008)
If what you want is to encourage constant low speed, then a speed bump is not what you want at all. Any speed bumps, even 'smart green' ones, if they are placed far enough apart that people _can_ accelerate and decelerate between each one, will result in drivers doing just that.
A better solution might be really bad, or designed wavy pavement, or speedbumps every car length or so, so that you are constantly on one.
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jeffzekas 1:34PM (12/13/2008)
Speed bumps lower traffic speeds an average of 60%, so they are VERY effective... for instance, in my residential neighborhood, the speed limit is 25 mph, but typically, folks drive 40 - 45 mph!!! Of course, the city refuses to put in roundabouts or speed bumps, because the traffic engineers do not want to "impede the flow of traffic". However, more progressive towns have approached the issue of "traffic calming" in a more pedestrian-friendly manner... I mean, if you want to go fast, take your Porsche out to the Nevada desert!!! If it were up to me, EVERY residential street in the US would have roundabouts, and would be narrow, like the roads in the UK!
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rob 2:00PM (12/13/2008)
My car has more than 8" of suspension travel. I don't need to slow down for speedbumps...
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Luke 2:54PM (12/13/2008)
GoodCheer,
Some of the residential streets in my town are paved with bricks, which creates a noisy wavy pavement. This really does create a low-speed atmosphere.
The noise created by the tires on the bricks probably makes my girlfriends Prius less stealthy, too.
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Luke 4:04PM (12/13/2008)
Rob @ 5,
When the shocks in my Ford Ranger went out, I replaced them with Sensatrac shocks. They're supposed to split the difference between a smooth ride and a sporty ride. After I wumped them around a little bit, it seems that they're soft for the first bump, and then they stiffen up a little bit. What this means is that it's just about as bumpy to hit a speed-bump at 30mph as it is at 10mph, though it is a little noisier. However, the suspension stiffens up (sports-car style) on a brick road (due to the constant movement), and if I want my passengers to feel comfortable, I need to slow down.
But I wouldn't hit a speed-bump at 30mph in any vehicle I cared about... Actually, I wouldn't even do it in a Ranger, unless you like installing ball joints and unbending tie-rods -- the Ranger has an unusually sturdy suspension, and I still had to had to have all 4 ball-joints replaced between 110k and 150k miles.
Not only that, but a speed bump is a request from the people in the neighborhood to please take it easy. (If they're added to an established neighborhood, the people in the neighborhood usually have to petition the town or city to have them added.) It's a rather obnoxious kind of request, but it's a request nonetheless. I'd prefer roundabouts and well designed streets as a classy traffic calming device. Speed bumps strike me as a kludge.
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Luke 7:39PM (12/13/2008)
NEWS FLASH: The time at which any ICE car is most inefficient is when it is at its lowest speeds. This is understood by anyone with a computer that gives mileage-per-gallon feedback.
The "greenest" speed bump is one that is totally flat and does not interrupt the smoothness of the pavement in any way. Of course, the next question is "What kind of speed bump is that?"
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Phil L. 2:38AM (12/14/2008)
Two words explain why we'll never see movable plastic speed bumps where I live:
Snow plows.
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SteveCT 1:12PM (12/14/2008)
Are you people crazy? Just slowing down for a single speed bump is a waste of gas. Any time the driver brakes, energy is wasted. How about the police actually, you know, do their jobs and enforce speed limits? Speed cameras in residential neighborhoods would work too. Anything but those goddamn speed bumps.
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TX CHL Instructor 4:51PM (12/14/2008)
Dips work much better than speed bumps. You can go over a speed bump at 3x the rated speed, and it's just a minor nuisance. A properly designed dip will damage the car at 3x rated speed.
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cheleball 3:17AM (12/15/2008)
Dips are also a lot harder to see, especially at night.
My biggest annoyance with speed bumps is that they demand a speed far below the posted limit. These bumps look like they would fix that, which is a huge plus in my opinion.
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Duncan Watson 3:09PM (12/16/2008)
As a cyclist, speed bumps can cause a lot of problems for me if poorly designed. I prefer speed humps vs bumps since my smaller diameter wheels can get knocked out of true on short steep bumps.
We need to design road facilities that aren't so car centric.
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