The Abomination of Speed Humps

Speed limits in the United States are set by each state or territory. In Texas (where I live), the default state speed limit inside a city or town is 30 miles per hour for a normal street and 25 miles per hour in an alleyway. Thus, if you are driving on a normal street, you should assume that the limit is 30 miles per hour, unless you see a sign posted with a speed limit to the contrary,

Many neighborhoods in Texas have been obstructing the Texas state law, in my view, by installing so-called speed humps on various streets. These speed humps are intended to force people to slow down to speeds of 5-15 miles per hour, depending on the vehicle, or else incur damage to their vehicle (for example, a busted oil pan), or, even worse, have an accident.

States generally allow a statewide transportation agency and lesser authorities to change speed limits, as does Texas. I have a brother-in-law who lives in a neighborhood in a small town about an hour north of Houston. He strongly objected to folks driving through a particular intersection at speeds more than 20 mph. Did he lobby to have speed humps installed? No, he did not. Rather, he talked to his neighbors, and they went through the proper procedures to get the law changed. Now, there is a 20 mph speed limit sign posted at the intersection, with warnings about heavy fines should you ignore it. It worked.

I abhor speed humps. My opinion is that if you want people not to drive more than 20 miles per hour on some street (or 15 miles per hour, or whatever), you should get the speed limit changed and get signs posted to that effect, just like my brother-in-law did. If instead, you get speed humps installed without changing the limit, not only are you thwarting the normal legislative process, but also you are misleading drivers, basically saying to them, “The speed limit is 30 miles per hour, but (Psyche!) it’s really not, because if you actually drive at that perfectly legal rate of speed, you may damage your car and possibly even have an accident.” This is insane, and it is wrong, wrong, wrong!

I detest speed humps for three reasons. First, and mainly, they are a de facto obstruction of state law. Second, they can have bad unintended consequences; for example, accidents can happen if drivers ignore the speed humps and drive the legal limits on these roads. Third, they are routinely misrepresented – people are generally told that they should slow down to 15 miles per hour, when in fact, they often must slow down much more than this – in my car, you had better not go more than 5 miles per hour over them or you’re asking for trouble. The first time I encountered a speed hump, I slowed down to only 15 miles per hour and damn near had a wreck. Incidentally, they are also named wrong – they should be called slow-down humps, or something like that; I guess that makes four reasons, doesn’t it?