How Bad is the “Bump” in Speed Bumps?

We know that communities with speed bumps receive lots of complaints about them due to noise, increased wear and tear on vehicles, concerns about delayed emergency response times and because they cause pain for vehicle occupants. These and other reasons are why many municipalities are moving aways from speed humps and bumps.The pain issue is very real, especially when the speed bumps are located near retirement communities and hospitals.

The extent of this pain-inducing effect has now been more fully crystallized in a medical study which earned a 2015 British Ig Nobel Prize winner. According to Science Focus, “Researchers from Stoke Mandeville Hospital published a paper in The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) after they discovered a number of patients with appendicitis had a particularly painful journey on their way through Aylesbury, a residential town with an unprecedented number of speed bumps. Their formal study found that 33 of 34 patients with appendicitis felt pain as they bumped their way through the sleepy Buckinghamshire town.”

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people LAUGH, and then THINK. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology. The awards are very prestigious and are handed out by genuine Nobel Laureates. That said, the research was sound and strong enough to earn the Ig Nobel Prize for diagnostic medicine.

It’s just one more confirmation that the antiquated speed bump should be on it’s way out.

Charlie Robeson: Radarsign™ Co-founder & Director of Sales and Marketing