Could this be the Black Country’s barmiest speed hump? People in Wednesbury certainly think so.
The latest phase of traffic calming measures in Woden Road North in the town has turned into a laughing stock.
Workmen installing speed bumps in rows of three at regular intervals along the street placed one set so close to a pedestrian refuge that nothing wider than a pedal car could possibly be affected by it.
Residents fear the hump could actually distract attention from the very pedestrians it is designed to protect.
This is because it is sited less than two feet from a bollard on the refuge.
Resident Dave Winter said that while the rows of three speed humps on other parts of the road were placed two or three metres away from the refuges, this particular hump just looked ridiculous.
“It’s absolutely barmy,” he said.
“I can’t believe that anyone thought that was necessary.”
Pensioner Barbara Wistons, who lives nearby, said the hump was yet another waste of council taxpayers’ money.
Gurdip Singh said he appreciated the need for traffic-calming measures in the area but said someone ought to have noticed that the middle one of the row was redundant before it was installed.
Another resident, Ron Bayliss, branded the hump “ridiculous”.
Residents also fear that the hump might be an accident hazard at night, particularly to those unfamiliar with the stretch who may drive straight over the middle one and crash.
Councillor Mahboob Hussain, Sandwell’s cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said there was a variety of reasons why the hump may have been placed where it was, but that he would happily look into residents’ concerns.
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Councillor Mahboob Hussain, Sandwell’s cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said there was a variety of reasons why the hump may have been placed where it was, but that he would happily look into residents’ concerns.
Well that says it all doesn’t it? Isn’t this the same council that built the Public? and wasted in excess of £55 million of our money,
Councillor Mahboob Hussain, a little bit of information for you, if a boy racer hits those speed bumps at a fairly fast speed, as they very often do to experience the thrill of flying through the air, then in wet or dry conditions, the car lifts up and takes traction off the wheels, being able to stop at that pedestrian area is seriously effected, but no doubt we will have to count casualties before anyone from Sandwell Council will listen to us the Electorate.
Jim West Midlands.
Perhaps Mahboob Hussain could politely tell the express and star the reasons that the humps were put there! we could then maybe understand the decision.
Or is it more that he is protecting the idiots who placed the hump there in the first place!
As Jim states this will cause accidents!
When applying for jobs with the various councils ect it states on application forms work on own initiative/common sense, what went wrong I wonder.
I work in the Yorkshire area and one of the councils did a similar thing using metal ballards to restrict the traffic speed, within a month the bollards had been hit several times by vehicles and 1 person knocked down. previous to this there were NO accidents or casualties. The bollards have now simply been taken down with a waste of money bill to the tax payer.