Road Humps
We are all familiar with these as a traffic calming measure but sometimes the road hump is a hazard in itself. This article focuses on how road humps should be constructed and maintained to remain safe.
Road Humps (Scotland) Regulations 1998
In terms of the Road Humps (Scotland) Regulations 1998:-
- You cannot have a road hump unless the road has carriageway lighting;
- The hump must be constructed perpendicular to the road surface;
- Must conform to prescribed dimensions and in particular must have no vertical face comprising any part of it exceeding 6mm or approximately a ¼ of an inch.;
- Must be marked; and
- Must be signed
What do we mean by vertical face?
If for example, where the hump meets the road the surface has eroded leaving a gap then this is a vertical face. A vertical face could also arise if there was any erosion or cracking anywhere on the surface of the hump.
Roads with speed limits of 20mph or less
On these roads, the requirements about carriageway lighting, signing and construction perpendicular to the road do not apply.
Cyclists
Road humps which don’t comply with Road Humps (Scotland) Regulations 1998 are most likely to present a hazard for cyclists. It doesn’t take much erosion of, or cracking to, the road surface to expose a vertical face of more than a ¼ of an inch. Although we are not aware of any survey having been done our guess is that there will be a substantial number of road humps which don’t conform to the regulations.
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