Traffic calming devices such as speed bumps and speed humps are crucial in ensuring safety in busy parking lots, private roadways, and quiet neighborhood streets. These traffic calming devices, including speed bumps, speed humps, and speed cushions, are designed to manage vehicle speeds and enhance safety for patrons, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists alike.
In recent years, innovative, cost-effective, and sustainable solutions from recycled materials have emerged as a popular choice for traffic calming. Recycled rubber speed bumps are not only durable and easy to install but also offer environmental benefits. These modern alternatives provide a flexible and effective way to enhance road safety without the high costs and environmental impact of traditional materials such as concrete or asphalt.
What’s the Difference? Speed Bumps vs. Speed Humps vs. Speed Cushions
While each has a specific use, they are often discussed more generally as speed bumps. However, when it comes to traffic calming, there is a difference, and these products are best deployed for their intended use.
- Speed bumps are small, raised areas that force drivers to slow down significantly, making them ideal for parking lots, alleys, and private roadways.
- Speed humps are wider, longer, and gentler. They are designed to reduce vehicle speeds without causing discomfort, making them suitable for road access and residential roads where a moderate speed reduction is needed.
- Speed cushions, on the other hand, are designed to slow down standard vehicles while allowing emergency and service vehicles to pass without jarring interruptions. This makes them perfect for use on municipal roadways, including neighborhoods and larger parking lots.
Alternatives to Asphalt and Concrete—Cost-Effective Recycled Rubber Speed Bumps and Other Traffic Calming Devices
While asphalt and concrete speed bumps and speed humps have been used as the primary construction materials for decades, they do have drawbacks:
- They can be challenging to move, remove, modify, and install.
- They require extensive surface preparation, installation, and curing time.
- Asphalt and concrete can be expensive to install and maintain.
- They can crack or degrade because of weather and road conditions and can be costly to repair.
- They create a harsh impact on vehicles as well as additional noise.
Recycled rubber speed bumps, speed humps, and speed cushions have these unique benefits that make them an outstanding choice for commercial and private parking lots, residential streets, and HOAs:
- They are pre-manufactured, which makes them easy to install with essential tools and minimizes any disruption to traffic flow.
- Recycled composite material traffic calming products implements are highly resistant to chipping and cracking in most weather conditions.
- They are easy to maintain and can be easily repaired if damaged as they are modular in design.
- Portable speed bumps and temporary speed bumps give maximum opportunity for design alternatives.
- Due to their longevity and low maintenance, they are highly cost-effective.
- They can be easily moved or reconfigured if necessary.
- They are made from recycled materials and are a great environmentally friendly choice.
How Traffic Calming Has Evolved Over Time
Since the 1940s and 1950s, traveling by vehicle has become ubiquitous in our culture, requiring traffic calming to become an integral part of urban planning. Traffic calming methods focus directly on creating street layouts that accommodate all users, including pedestrians, cyclists, commuters, and public transit systems.
Modern traffic calming measures are more sophisticated. They often involve a combination of physical design features, such as raised intersections, chacains, and mini-roundabouts, as well as psychological strategies, like narrowing lanes and adding landscaping to create a sense of enclosure.
Today, traffic calming is recognized as a vital tool for enhancing community livability and promoting sustainable transportation. Successful traffic calming projects have been implemented in cities worldwide, demonstrating the transformative power of these measures in creating safer, more vibrant streets, parking lots, and neighborhoods.
Best Practices for Design and Placement of Speed Bumps and Speed Humps
It’s essential to consider the design and placement of speed bumps, speed humps, and speed cushions. Best practices in the industry maximize their effectiveness while reducing vehicle speeds and enhancing safety, whether designing for parking lot speed bumps or other traffic calming device uses.
- Understanding Function—Understanding their specific context and purpose is essential. Whether you are designing a parking lot or private roadways or residential street, it’s crucial to understand pedestrian hits, traffic patterns, accident history, and any feedback to determine the optimal placement and the deterrents needed.
- Designing for Effectiveness and Comfort – Using the right tool for the job is key to ensuring effectiveness. If you want to create a sharper jolt to slow vehicles, you may want to focus on speed bumps. Speed humps and speed cushions, on the other hand, provide a gentler rise and fall that encourages slower speeds while minimizing potential vehicle damage.
- Strategic Placement – Ideally, speed bumps and speed humps should be installed where speeding is a problem and safety may be compromised, such as pedestrian crossings, schools, parks, and other high-foot traffic areas. Additionally, spacing them properly is also important. If they are too close together, they can cause excessive delays and frustration—too far apart, and you may reduce their effectiveness.
- Signage and Visibility – Adequate signage is critical to ensure that drivers are aware they are entering an area with speed bumps and speed humps. Reflective signs and road markings should be placed well before all traffic calming methods to help slow down the traffic as well as prevent accidents and vehicle damage.
Rubber Speed Bumps and Other Traffic Calming Devices Bring Sustainable Safety
While RubberForm Recycled Products is the only manufacturer in the United States of recycled composite, rubber speed bumps, speed humps, and speed cushions from recycled materials. RubberForm’s traffic calming products provide significant environmental impact by altering driving patterns and reducing vehicle speeds.
Speed bumps, speed humps, and speed cushions are effective in reducing vehicle speeds and enhancing parking lot safety and road safety, but they also improve fuel consumption and emissions for more eco-friendly traffic flow. Specifically, when approaching vehicles decelerate, they burn less fuel, resulting in reduced fuel consumption and emissions of pollutants such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx).
To determine the effectiveness of designs and placements of traffic calming measures, commercial property owners, developers, resorts, HOA’s, municipalities and community planners should consider ongoing monitoring and evaluation to collect data on traffic patterns, fuel consumption, and emissions. This information can guide your future implementations, ensuring you exceed your safety objectives and minimize any environmental harm.
Final Thoughts
Recently, traffic calming solutions made from recycled materials have gained in popularity for being innovative, cost-effective, and sustainable. These recycled composite material speed bumps, speed humps, and speed cushions are known for their durability and ease of installation, and they also offer environmental advantages by using recycled materials.
Recycled rubber and recycled plastic composite material provides options and flexibility that improve road safety while avoiding the high costs and environmental impact of traditional materials, such as asphalt and concrete.
Selecting the correct type of traffic calming, speed control device for your project is essential—explore RubberForm’s wide range of recycled rubber speed bumps, speed humps, and speed cushions for sale and find the perfect solution for your project.
