The real cost of old speed bumps – details

Below is the list of main negative effects of the old speed bumps that are avoided by our Smart Bumps.

  • Old speed bumps annoy all the drivers (and their passengers) and going over them is uncomfortable.
  • Old speed bumps increase the pollution in their surroundings.
  • Old speed bumps increase the fuel consumption.
  • Old speed bumps slow down the emergency vehicles.
  • Old speed bumps are noisy.
  • Old speed bumps slow everybody and cause congestion.
  • Old speed bumps can cost as much as 10,000 EUR per year.

Our Smart bumps avoid all these negative effects. By avoiding the stop-start behavior, we provide constant speed of the vehicles, that minimizes the fuel consumption and pollution, and avoids the delay and congestion. As the majority of vehicles would go over flat smart bump, there will also be less noise.

By avoiding the negative effects, we are not only improving drivers’ experience and decreasing the pollution, but the great thing is that our smart bumps practically pay for themselves in few months, only from the fuel savings.

Short explanation of the negative effects (for in depth info see here):

  • Annoying everybody
By their design, the speed bumps are uncomfortable for everybody at any speed,...
…although only a minority of the drivers are over-speeding (typically ~5%). This means that out of 100 drivers, we are unnecessarily punishing 95 of them. We believe that this is simply not fair.

  • Increasing pollution
Because of the discomfort, most drivers usually almost stop before the speed bump and later accelerate to the previous speed. This is so called stop-start behavior …
…responsible for substantial increase of pollution. Many studies found that passing over traditional speed bumps causes serious increase of pollution (more than 60% increase in NO2; almost 50% in PM pollution; almost 60% increase in CO). So, on the one hand, traditional speed bumps are saving lives, but on the other hand, they are polluting the environment. This is the reason why, in some countries, authorities are thinking to take them away.

  • Increasing the fuel consumption
Each pass over a speed bump wastes between 5 and 10 ml of fuel…
…(as a result of the stop-start effect). While this doesn’t seem like much, it adds up. A typical old speed bump wastes more than 8 tons of fuel each year. This translates to CO2 footprint of 20tons/year. All this fuel is burned only to make unnecessary pollution.

  • Slowing the emergency vehicles
Every old speed bump on the way of the emergency vehicle slows the response team by several seconds…
… This may prove critical in some cases and that is why most municipalities avoid installing speed bumps on emergency routes.

  • Increasing noise
Because of the braking and fast acceleration, and the hit of the vehicles …
…going over old speed bumps, the noise in their surrounding is increased.

  • Slowing everybody down and congestion
Because of the discomfort, most drivers usually almost stop before the speed bump and later accelerate …
…to the previous speed. On top of wasting a lot of fuel, this wastes time. On a typical road with speed limit of 30 km/h where we put speed bump, this translates to unnecessary delay of more than 2 seconds per car on average. While this doesn’t seem like much, a typical old speed bump wastes more than 1500 hours of time per year. Of YOUR time.

  • Long term cost of the old speed bumps
When we estimate how much something costs, we should not look only on the initial cost…
…, but to weight the long-term effects. That is why for example, more people think of buying electric cars, which are much more expensive initially, but later have significantly lower expenses.

While old speed bumps have very low initial cost, if we estimate their TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) over longer time, we will come to a completely different conclusion.

Below is a calculation of real cost for a typical old speed bump over 10 years.

Initial installation cost (speed bump, construction, signs…):1000 EUR
Cost of wasted fuel:10 * 9600 = 96000 EUR*
CO2 put into atmosphere:20,000 * 10 = 200 tons
Time wasted:10*1500 – 15,000 Hours**
Discomfort:17.3 million times a car is unnecessary ‘punished’**
Noise:medium impact***
Pollution (CO, NO, PM…):big impact***
Slowing emergency vehicles:medium impact****
Total/10 years: 97,000 EUR + 15,000 hours lost
*estimated fuel waste, typical speed bump 8000 liters, price 1.2 EUR/lit.
** 5000 cars/day on average, 95% driving below the limit, 1.5 people/car avg.
*** We do not have specific numbers for noise and pollution impact, but they are significant (pollution is decreased by at least 40% )
**** as the speed bumps are not put on emergency routes, the impact is minimized, but there is no safety on the streets
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