The in basket: Russell Johnson wrote, “Why are there speed bumps in 35 mph zones that are rated by the county as 10 mph? This doesn’t make a lot of sense. Why isn’t the speed at these areas 10 mph or the speed bump made to be rated at the road speed?
“You can find this in other forms all over the county and it isn’t always in a 35 mph zone. At the Point No Point Road (in North Kitsap) the speed is 15 mph and the bumps are 5 mph.
What happens when someone hits these at the legal speed and not the warning speed posted by or ahead of these speed bumps? Who would fix the damage, if any would occur as hitting the bump way too fast?
“I would also like to know what is the speed (limit) between the speed bumps,” he said.
The out basket: The speed limit between any pair of speed humps is what was stated on the last black-on-white speed limit sign the driver sees before the humps. The black-on-orange or yellow signs preceding the humps are advisory. You’re free to cross them at the posted speed if you dare and don’t mind the jolt.
The whole idea of speed humps is to discourage drivers from going over the speed limit. If the safe speed to cross the humps was the speed limit leading to them, they’d serve no purpose.
A person who ignores the advisory sign and damages his car on the speed hump is free to submit a claim to whichever government owns the road, but I wouldn’t expect such a claim to succeed. The driver would have been warned what the advisable speed is.
Jeff Shea, traffic engineer for Kitsap County said. “We even try to space the speed humps so that the highest speed attainable at normal acceleration and deceleration gets the motorist to the posted speed limit.”
I e-mailed Mr. Johnson back to find out where he got the idea of 5 and 15 mph speed restrictions on Point No Point Road but he didn’t reply.
Jeff said, “The posted speed limit on Point No Point is actually 20 mph. State law prohibits us from posting anything lower than 20 mph. The advisory speeds for the speed humps is 10 mph.”
“The whole idea of speed humps is to discourage drivers from going over the speed limit. If the safe speed to cross the humps was the speed limit leading to them, they’d serve no purpose.”
Not quite so on Hood Canal Drive: the reworked humps (bumps, tables) are easily passable at the posted speed limit. The others in Hansville, not so much. Those are pretty harsh, and unsafe over 20 mph. Most trucks and emergency equipment go much slower.
I can think of a few places where the “speed humps” are easily passable at the posted speed limit. San Juan ave in front of Blue Heron middle school in Port Townsend comes to mind. Yet if you pass these only 5 mph over the limit your asking for a jolt. Very well engineered to me.
It seems the county engineers believe in your case that drivers will speed up past the posted limit between the bumps. My belief there is that they should fund more enforcement in these areas when people blatantly ignore posted limits in residential areas.
Yes, Dwight, more enforcement would help (See the letter re Old Military). The operative word is “funding”, and in today’s political climate, it just ain’t agonna happen. Less enforcement, not more is the norm.
I think a speed bump should be placed in any residential neighborhood. Especially near schools where kids walk to school. I live by the fairgrounds where there are multiple schools and where kids walk to those schools and most of them cut through the surrounding neighborhoods to stay off the main roads. Well those idiot teens who drive to the High school and are normally always running late like to cut through those neighborhoods to avoid the red light at Central Valley and Fairgrounds and so they speed through those neighborhoods just to make it to school on time. I have contacted different people about that including law enforcement and I have been told that unless the cops see them breaking the law or unless someone gets hit, then there is not much that can be done.