The following seems quite sensible really, depending on the speed they're set to, of course.
M.
A NEW generation of "intelligent" road humps, capable of collapsing to give the responsible motorist an unhindered drive, is set to be introduced throughout Britain.
Tests with the rubber hump, which deflates to allow motorists obeying the speed limit to pass without a jolt, have proved so successful that 400 local authorities, supermarkets, colleges and private estates are considering installing it.
And a second new hump has been patented which contains a tiny digital camera to record the number plates of drivers going too fast.
The new "sleeping policemen" are not only seen as being gentler on law-abiding motorists, but also as a response to complaints that humps increase pollution. A three-year study by the Transport Research Laboratory concluded earlier this month that humps can lead to a 60% rise in exhaust emissions as cars slow down, speed up and slow down again.
The inflatable hump has a valve instead of an airhole and uses a pressure gauge to determine the speed of an approaching vehicle. If it is obeying the speed limit, the hump deflates from 3.9in high.
A seven-month trial of the Transcalm in the City of London ends next month. The humps cost about £4,000 each - much the same as a traditional hump - and last between three and five years.
A spokesman for the City of London Corporation said: "The inflatable humps have been a raging success. We have had ringing endorsements from taxi and delivery drivers."
Councils in Bristol, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Leeds, Greater Manchester and Sheffield have all expressed interest in installing them, and Cambridge and Bath universities are in talks about using the Transcalm on their campuses.
The hump was invented by Graham Heeks, a former building services' engineer, who came up with the idea after studying his baby daughter, Saskia, play with a squeaky toy.
He attached the toy, with an airhole in one side, to her hand to track her movements as she crawled around shops. She soon learnt to turn the toy round so that air was retained and it did not squeak.
Heeks, from Cheshire, has now gone into partnership with Dunlop, the tyre manufacturer, to produce the Transcalm in a venture that could make him a millionaire.
However, a potential rival hump has been invented by Graham Assinder at Roke Manor Research, part of the German-owned Siemens group. It contains a digital camera, a row of powerful light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a battery recharged by solar power. The camera uses a radio transmitter to send a picture back to a control base.
It is already employed at the entrance to the firm's offices in Romsey, Hampshire, using number-plate recognition to operate a barrier. A spokesman for the firm said it was also designed as a speed hump.
So which hump would motorists choose? "It is like saying do you prefer being whipped or caned," said Rod Lewis, a London cabbie for 46 years and editor of Taxi Globe newspaper.
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do not forget the speed hump was invented in Brazil and named after the Brazilian dance the lambarda
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Bring back the pre-war sports car which smoothed out at speed.....
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