[pganapathy]

Considering that has officially been a law since the 90's, that nobody ever followed, and that a lot of the speed breakers are installed in built up areas on the highway or are instigated by villagers who have land on both so des of the highway, how well this will work is debatable. Nevertheless, fingers crossed that it works out. A couple of months back they had removed most speed breakers on the Bangalore Mysore highway and replaced them with maze style barrier gates, but within a few months they replaced the speed breakers. God alone knows what logic they applied

[Vikvkv]

This move can be a boon and also can be bane since most of speed breakers on highway are not properly highlighted and the most important part is common sense while crossing highways by the pedestrians, this is the vital part on highways which passes through a town or a village.

[One:1]

Great move by the government!
Unmarked speed breakers especially on highways are such a pain and such a danger ! It reminds me of an instance when we were traveling from Chennai to Sri kalastri in an OHC (I say OHC just to remind everyone about how low the car sits ) we hit an unmarked speed breaker at about plus or minus 60 kmph, absolutely no warning ,sign board or paint. To add to this , there was no reason for it to even be there to begin with ! luckily no harm done ,we carried on with our journey

I doubt if they will remove the speed breakers in Bangalore-Mysore road

Complete shocker -the sheer number of speed breakers on the highway ,on the way back to Bangalore ,I counted the number of the so called speed breakers. An astounding ,wait for it -101 speed breakers yes 101!
There's was this one hump where we came to a complete stand still because of the sheer size of it .most people saw the size of it , reversed and drove in the oncoming lanes just to avoid it !

[kovilkalai]

Originally Posted by Swapnil4585

Don't subscribe to this idea, unless and until all the National Highways are made "Controlled Access" or "Limited Access" Highways.

There have to be well marked speed breakers when nearing a village / small town and after exiting it. Don't mind if they're too big a size or not. But they've to be marked. I frequently use the N H 3 from Dhule towards Mumbai and have seen horrible accident because of the absence of speed breakers, due to carelessness of both, speeding vehicle and villagers.

The villagers must be given an alternative (underpass) to crossing the highway, so that they cross safely, without hindering the flow of the highway traffic. Then, those black - yellow cab drivers must be disciplined to take the service road near villages / small towns, for their business. I'm happy to slow down upon nearing a town, whether there are breakers or not. Factually, we're still on the opposite side of this Government Order.

I drive a lot and hate speedbreakers as much as the next guy. But, this only serves one set of stakeholders. For every car/bus, there are quite possibly dozens of pedestrians who are adversely affected by this.

Let me give you an example. There are literally dozens of locations on the Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru where people have to cross 6 lanes and a barrier to get to the other side and they have no option but to play Frogger in real life. There are places where the authorities have installed traffic lights just for pedestrians (i.e. no road crossings, just a zebra crossing) and vehicles don't stop on red.

If speedbreakers help, then lets have them. What I would ask for is prominent signage alerting drivers to an upcoming speedbreaker. I had such a terrible experience last week coming back from Shimoga because of the absence of these signs!

[needforspeed88]

Hopefully some strict action is taken and followed up. So many unscientific speed breakers littered pretty much at regular intervals on highways. Speed breakers are constructed by every village to stop the buses. The size of some of these speed breakers will give you a skipped heart beat. At night in the glare of headlights if you miss one of these steep unmarked speed breakers you risk not only wrecking your suspension but also loosing control and ending up on to the opposite lane.

[adneeraj]

Placing rumbling stripes on the road is a better idea than speed breakers, I believe.
The accidents caused are mainly because of a speed breaker in the middle of nowhere which someone suddenly spots. But, this seems to be a far fetched one to implement. Too many villages and farms through which the highways pass and too many places where there are service roads due to road work going on.
A bit off topic, but there should be laws and regulations in place for the service road entry exits. The ones on NH 4 are so so bad, speed breakers here almost break your car!

[YaeJay]

Originally Posted by couswheels

Removal of speed beakers should not result in putting barricades which was done in Bangalore - Mysore Road

This road has to have one or the other. Because there are too many roads joining that highway. Whenever there is barricade or rumbler strips, every time we have one road from interior joining on to the main road.

Better solution would be to have barricades and speed breakers for all the roads that join the main road. At the same time have warning signboards from 300mts, 250, 150 mts. and barricades can cut off the left most lane from 200 mts.

id rather pay the penalty of time rather than running down some nitwit. The emotional cost will be too much for me.


I am all for barricades and rumblers and speed breakers on this stretch.

[LoneWolf9]

While I agree that speed breakers are nuisance on highway, but I don't know how else due to stop idiots to slow down, when there is a village or school around.

We don't want speed breakers on highway but are okay with the same in our housing society.

[cs.giri]

Originally Posted by kovilkalai

Let me give you an example. There are literally dozens of locations on the Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru where people have to cross 6 lanes and a barrier to get to the other side and they have no option but to play Frogger in real life. There are places where the authorities have installed traffic lights just for pedestrians (i.e. no road crossings, just a zebra crossing) and vehicles don't stop on red.

If speedbreakers help, then lets have them. What I would ask for is prominent signage alerting drivers to an upcoming speedbreaker. I had such a terrible experience last week coming back from Shimoga because of the absence of these signs!

Couple of points here:
1. I don't think the interpretation here is to remove speed-brakers from all sections on the NH. I think if the NH is passing through a town or a city (ORR is technically NH7), speed-brakers at appropriate locations are a necessity. The question is whether to have them on sections of NHs where speed limits are > 80 KMPH
2. The second point is that the even if speed-brakers are marked, they should be marked well in advance so that drivers have adequate time to reach and slow down. I was on a state highway in Karnataka recently and even though the speed-brakers were marked with signs, the signs were so close to them that I practically had a couple of seconds to react.

Cheers.

[medicineman1987]

And just when we thought things were heading in the right direction our government has this little brain fart

[Aakarsh]

That's a good move by the transport ministry but what about the so called National Highways which are not more than a busy city road in today's date. Examples : NH-72(from Dehradun till Shasazpur), NH-23 (in and around Ranchi) etc. For your knowledge, a part of NH-23 is called 'Ratu Road' in Ranchi and the traffic jams are such that vehicles sometimes doesn't move an inch in office hours. People sometimes fail to cross the road due to sheer traffic on the road. Vehicles coming tangentially from sub-streets fail to cross the road even. Speed-breakers are their last ray of hope.

Various highways have been turned into dense city roads and they need speed breakers to literally break the speeds of the vehicles.

When the new rule is seen from the actual highway's POV then it's ok, but not at all good IMO when so called highways (as mentioned above) are considered.

Aakarsh

[vinya_jag]

I feel, we need speed breakers on our state highways. Read Mysore -Bangalore too. There are way too many intersections, and T-junctions. These are not built to NH standards.
I just want them with proper sign posts, and clearly visible zebra stripes on them, as well as properly designed.
Today, there are so many speed hump sign posts but the humps have been cleared, or no sign posts but huge humps. None of them have the paint on them. How stupid can our authorities be?

[murillo]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf9

While I agree that speed breakers are nuisance on highway, but I don't know how else due to stop idiots to slow down, when there is a village or school around.

We don't want speed breakers on highway but are okay with the same in our housing society.

Originally Posted by vinya_jag

I feel, we need speed breakers on our state highways. Read Mysore -Bangalore too. There are way too many intersections, and T-junctions. These are not built to NH standards.
I just want them with proper sign posts, and clearly visible zebra stripes on them, as well as properly designed.
Today, there are so many speed hump sign posts but the humps have been cleared, or no sign posts but huge humps. None of them have the paint on them. How stupid can our authorities be?

The issues crop up because of unofficial speed breakers put up by villagers, which are illegal in the first place, and which are not designed scientifically. I remember, there are laws as to how to design a speed breaker. These unlawful speed breakers must go.

Once travelling on a state highway, I came across a speed breaker at a village, which is so tall and sharp even the SUVs are crawling over it and hitting their underbelly. It was newly laid and the tar was fresh; because of the scraping, the tar was coming loose and the road was strewn with tar clinkers. And by the side of the speed breaker, there was a bus stop shed where the villagers squatted and merrily watched the tamasha.

Everyone is ok, I assume, with speed breakers installed by the highways department at the appropriate places, following the specifications lawfully, with full markings and warning signs.

Highways cannot be compared to housing societies. A housing society is free to formulate its own laws, and those laws cannot be cited to justify illegal activities on the highways.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by murillo

The issues crop up because of unofficial speed breakers put up by villagers, which are illegal in the first place, and which are not designed scientifically. I remember, there are laws as to how to design a speed breaker. These unlawful speed breakers must go.

Will we be also to remove them - I doubt it. At one time there used to be two per hamlet / school / whatever, now I think there are more. Once I was lost my way in Haryana and ended up in Nuh(?). Getting from there to NH8 showed me the full menace. Short, high breakers allover. My Civic (no autorunners then) was bottoming out on every one, and at even near zero kph the silencer was hitting.

[murillo]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Will we be also to remove them - I doubt it.

As you rightly pointed out, enforcement is a big problem. Unless all citizens cultivate the habit of adherence to laws, any amount of laws will come to naught.

If the government comes, removes the illegal speed breakers, and goes away, then those will be back in no time.

It boils down to accountability - so let's make someone accountable for the illegal speed breakers. There are government officials such as panchayat head or tehsildar in all places. Why not make them accountable for illegal speed breakers in their roads?