I live in a really nice apartment complex. However, the one negative aspect of living where I do is the fact that the apartment complex has speed bumps. While I appreciate the fact that the apartment staff has our best interests in mind, speed bumps are extremely annoying to drive over because after driving over speed bumps day in and day out, over the course of time, doing so can actually damage your car.
I have a love hate relationship with speed bumps however. I figured that there was a reason for them being where they were, and that was made evident by the few people I have seen in the apartment complex who are in a rush to get home or get out. These people act like they are on a highway! They will speed from speed bump to speed bump, barely even slowing down for the actual speed bump! With the number of people who live in the apartment complex and are always outside actively walking, jogging or taking their dogs for walks, speed bumps are a great deterrent because it forces drivers to be more aware of the fact that this is an area where there is a lot of pedestrian traffic.
In the past, there has been much debate over the use of speed bumps in residential areas because of the possible threat it may serve to emergency vehicles who are trying to respond to a call. When I was in the police department and was a police officer, however, I was taught a trick. If the speed bumps aren t the smaller ones, but are the larger, more wide ones (that you commonly see in non apartment complex residential areas), then if you maintain a speed of at least 40 miles per hour or above, the speed bump won t affect your vehicle. However, if you dip below 40 miles per hour while going over one of them, then you ll more than likely catch a little air going over.
Sometimes I wonder whether or not they should put some sort of special speed bumps on regular roadways to help mitigate the number of lead foots out there. I doubt that it would do any good anyway because people always seem to find a loophole to skirt around the issue. Admittedly, with the speed bumps in my apartment complex, depending on the location of the speed bump in proximity to parking spaces, you can sometimes simply drive around the speed bump if there are no cars parked beside it. Of course, driving around a speed bump defeats the entire purpose of the speed bump even being there to begin with I suppose.
The main thing to remember is the entire point of having speed bumps to begin with. So, the next time you find yourself getting frustrated because of the number of speed bumps that you have to go over where you live, think about whey they were put there in the first place: to keep you and others safe. There are times when we don t really focus on how fast we are zipping along in a particular area...until it is too late.
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