Bangalore has a traffic flow of under 19km per hr which is the slowest across metros in India… and to add to this problem are numerous speed breakers blindly put up at each and every junction. According to the latest report, Bangalore has over 1,000 illegal or unplanned speed breakers. Who do you blame for this? The BBMP (city corporation) or the police department?
You will find a speed bump rite after you cross a junction (residency rd) and sometimes before it also, you will find one just before you get on to a flyover (yeshwantpur) and you will find one on almost any road where an accident has taken place. Guess, the authorities have found a quick fix solution by installing a bump for any and every reason.
Most of the cars both sedans and hatchbacks which have slightly lower ground clearence cannot avoid but scratch their floors while negotiating these bumps and almost 90% of these speed breakers do not have any kind of marking or sign. So, on a dark night you may be taken by complete surprise to find one right in front of you and you have no option but to hope that your vehicle doesn’t get completely damaged. These unplanned bump also result in additional breaking, additional acceleration which results in increased consumption of fuel and emissions.
It took the death of police inspector (who died due to a speed breaker) to finally get the authorities to remove some unscientific road humps but that was almost 2 years back. But its back to where we started off.
The only solution i see is if we get the government to set-up a special unit to study and then install and maintain these speed breakers.. till then, don’t let your sight out of our roads no matter if you are on a highway or on a city road.
Here is a recent story in Deccan Herald which talk of unauthorized speed breakers in the city.
Finally the state government has woken up to this issue and is taking some stringent action on these notorious speed breakers..
Read about it here
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/jul/280710-BBMP-speed-breakers-Acharya-IRC.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mdnews%2Fbangalore+%28Mid+Day+Local+News+-+Bangalore%29
I support installation of more speed breakers. If people who drive are not disciplined to follow traffic rules, if they drive recklessly, the only way to slow them down is by speed breakers. If not for them, we would have lot more road accidents.
On a narrow but lengthy road outside my housing society there are frequent accidents/collisions of both motorcyclists and car owns who drive recklessly with speed as if they are on an expressway. I second Arvind Padmanabhan’s view on speed breakers and add that reverse parking horns/alarms should be allowed as well, esp. in Mumbai and also in rest of India. All of a sudden little children run behind a vehicle during playing without noticing that the vehicle is reversing. Their supervising parents (mothers) are busy chatting standing nearby the child act even dumb and many a times notice very late that the child is in harms way. Is loss of a human life or grave injury more acceptable rather than some irritability caused by the reverse parking alarms?
Also, why aren’t the reverse parking sensors made mandatory for all new and old four wheelers across the nation is still a mystery. Making it mandatory will allow healthier competition amongst car sensor manufacturers and eventually lower the cost of such useful accessories.