Holker Hump

Well it seems that what I have been saying for years has finally been proved by a scientific survey commissioned by the A.A. Road humps double the carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption by forcing drivers to brake and accelerate repeatedly. A car that achieves 58.15 miles per gallon travelling at a steady 30mph will deliver only 30.85mpg when going over humps.

The results, calculated by averaging the performances of the two cars, also showed that reducing the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph resulted in 10 per cent higher emissions. This is because car engines are designed to be most efficient at speeds above 30mph.

A motorist who observed the speed limit on one mile of 20mph road during a daily journey would produce an extra tonne of CO2 in a year compared with driving at 30mph on the same stretch. In an unusual move for a motoring organisation, the AA called for the introduction of cameras that detect average speeds to replace humps. The AA’s president, said: “Humps are a crude, uncomfortable and noisy way of slowing people down and this research has shown they are also environmentally damaging. We accept that traffic speed needs to be controlled in residential areas where there is a problem with accidents and children are playing. We think motorists are more likely to accept average speed cameras than humps.”

Previous research by the Transport Research Laboratory found that air pollution rose significantly on roads with humps. Carbon monoxide emissions increased by 82 per cent and nitrogen oxide by 37 per cent. So there you have it, the proof that speed humps apart from destroying our cars and injuring our backs, are also destroying the environment. But locally this common sense is ignored and we have plans for even more of these destructive humps on Holker Street. Speed humps are designed and intended to slow traffic in residential and school crossing areas. But this road is actually one of our main thoroughfares and ends in what they say is one of the busiest junctions in Cumbria. A junction where they have just spent £3/4 million widening and improving, doesn’t make a lot of sense doe’s it?