Can I Get A Speed Bump / Hump?

***xyz***

Tonight, for the third time in 4 years, my car has been written off whilst parked outside my house.

We live opposite a junction which has a good 100m dead straight road ahead of it.

Tonights episode involved a speeding car which didn't stop. Driver fled. Our car ruined.

We have in the past, asked the council to install a speed bump along the straight road but they have said we are not in an area that is in need of traffic calming and no fatalities have ever happened here.

That may be the case, but with a young family, something needs to be done. A petition, article in the local paper etc, have all come to nothing.

Is there any way that we could pay for and install a speed bump on this road ourselves? It is not a full main road, but is used by lots of traffic and busses.

Council are useless, so we are getting desperate!

patman99

Ask around. You may find other residents feel as you do. If you all work together to send a stream of letters to the Council, you may find that they soon change their minds. After all, for each letter they receive, they have to log it and respond within a certain time-frame. So by getting enough people involved, you could tie-down a Council employee for hours.

Alternatively, if there are a big enough group of you, right to your local Councillor. At least if they don't back you, you can use an Act that dates-back to 1376 to force a by-election. That is the one thing they fear the most.

Crabman

Are neighbours on-side with the speed bump plan? They must be made aware that these incidents are going to cause all of their car insurance premiums to sky-rocket.

If you have a group of neighbours on board it may be an idea to approach your local councillors, you should have one who sits on the county council and one (or more) who are on the district/city council.

If they know there is local support (i.e. a possibility they may get voted out at the next local election for not helping out ) you should be able to convince them and then things might start moving.

***xyz***

We really have tried with the council and local councillors.

Our councillor is actually the one who organised the petition and got us an interview and a photo with her in it!, in the local paper.

This was last year and she brought it up at whatever meeting she next went to, all to no avail. All neighbours are on board, so i guess a multi-letter-writing effort is the next stage.

It's just so frustrating when we would now pay ourselves for something to be put in the road, but still they say no.

Thanks for the replies.

scotsbob

You may want to think this one through before acting hastily.

Our council stuck speed bumps in our road without asking anyone, no consultation at all. Disaster all around. Neighbours with lowered cars getting scrapes. Drop links needing repaired, alignments needing redone.
Consider also the occasional mornings when you or your neighbours may sleep in and need to get to work a bit sharpish. You could be shooting yourself in the foot with this one.

Strider590

scotsbob wrote: »

You may want to think this one through before acting hastily.

Our council stuck speed bumps in our road without asking anyone, no consultation at all. Disaster all around. Neighbours with lowered cars getting scrapes. Drop links needing repaired, alignments needing redone.
Consider also the occasional mornings when you or your neighbours may sleep in and need to get to work a bit sharpish. You could be shooting yourself in the foot with this one.

What he said ^^

Plus think about trucks driving past, rattling and clanking as they hit the speed bumps at 3am.

I'd look toward a better alternative solution.......

keystone

You need a stopstick or an X net.

Cheers

jimbo_the_jetset

***xyz*** wrote: »

Is there any way that we could pay for and install a speed bump on this road ourselves? It is not a full main road, but is used by lots of traffic and busses.

You can't make DIY changes to a road. a) it is not your property b) you open yourself up to a whole raft of litigation regarding damage to cars or if there are accidents injury to persons.

I sympathise, but DIY is not the answer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8415351.stm - quick google search regarding accident blackspots

After local council, try police liaison/traffic officers to implement a speeding crackdown

vax2002

Think I would MOVE !

SailorSam

We live on a long straight road so it's perfect for drivers to increase their speed on. Our Council had added lots of 'humps' to the quieter roads in the middle of the estate and i asked could we get one, we had a school at one end of the road and sports centre at the other. There had been a number of minor accidents and we were told there hadn't been enough serious accidents.

redmower3

Something similar was done in Hertfordshire. A chap in Lower Road, Great Amwell paid for the installation of a chicane type structure (two lanes into one with priority in one direction) outside his house, apparently for the protection of this children.