DfT bumps off speed humps

08.31 | 14 June 2011 |

The DfT is to make it easier for councils to implement measures designed to reduce motorists’ speed, which could spell the end for speed humps, according to a Telegraph report.

While DfT approval is currently needed if councils want to put up a sign or paint the road, none is required for a hump.

According to the Telegraph, humps proliferated because they involve less paperwork for councils, even though they cost more than a signpost or painting the limit on the road.

But under changes announced by Norman Baker, the road safety minister, councils will no longer need Whitehall approval every time they want to use signs either by the side of the road or on the carriageway itself.

Norman Baker said: “Signs can do the job cheaper and more effectively without annoying people.”

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “If this means the sleeping policeman is finally dead and buried then few will mourn his passing, though it would be good to see more real, live, vertical policemen out and about on the beat making sure the few errant drivers stick to the law.”

Robert Gifford, Executive Director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, quipped: “They may have given drivers the hump over the years but vertical traffic calming has saved lives. Let’s hope that greater flexibility for local councils leads to more self-enforcement among drivers rather than external control.”

Click here to read the full Telegraph report.

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