What's the difference between a speed hump and a speed bump? (1 Viewer)

Surely, if they take the time to make different signs for each, there must be some kind of tangible difference. Anyone have a clue? I've always wondered....

I never even saw a sign that said "Speed Hump"

My amateur differention includes:

bump - small and steep, you must slow down to avoid hitting it hard

hump - much larger but not as steep, the ones where I live are like 5ft wide and much smoother so you can still go over them at 20-30mph

Basically, what Leila said.

Bump- you know, the typical deal in parking lots.

Hump- more of a tabletop, up 3-4in, then 4-5ft long, then down. Used to slow traffic in neighborhoods, without forcing near-stops for the paranoid (of which I am a member )

I thought this was going to have a dirty punchline, thanks to the thread title.

Really. I was just sitting here thinking of definitions of "speed hump"..................

Wait til you see the signs for a "speed plateau" or a speed scree"

Or then there's the famous ones that say "Speed Zone ahead" Cool! Let me get my right foot ready.

Jay

I got a pretty funny story about a speed hump. Was going down this 25mph road and a pimped out Honda was tailgating me. Little did he know there was a sizable, about 6" high and 4-5' long hump ahead, not exactly smooth. Now I'm in a real SUV at the time with about 6-7" suspension travel and I'm thinking that if he runs over the hump at same speed it should be pretty funny. So I speed up to about 30, about maximum for me and that speed hump, the guy is still 6 feet behind.

Fast forward about 1/3 of a second, the bottom half of his bumper completely shatters, breaks off, and goes under the car.

Tailgaters

I would pay money to see the guy's face in the aftermath.

This story made my day

lol.... anyone have any idea how to get speed humps installed in a neighborhood?

I live on a street that is about three blocks long with no cross streets. Recently they punched the street through to the highway so no my street has become another route to the Highway, instead of just access to the neighborhood. Thus many people that dont live in the neighborhood speed down my street. Ive seen some going (guessing) close to 55MPH.

Some help would be great.

I lived in such a neighborhood. One day some of our neighbors came around with a petition asking for a speed hump (hehehehe, hump). Within weeks the city had installed them. Not all municipalities run that smoothly, but a petition might be a good start.

If you guys ever go to Mexico, you'll see the real killer speed bumps. Known as topes, they place them at random locations in towns, and do not paint them and most are unmarked, so they look just like the road.

and they are extremely steep, some almost ^ shaped. Even at very low speeds some cars will scrape.

Thanks everyone. Interesting information all around! Has anyone found any state or federal guidelines though? Just curious....

Try this: Sit in your front yard with an object in your hand that looks like a speed gun (blow drier maybe?) and a pad of paper and pen. Make a show out of "aiming" the object at cars as they go by and let them see you "writing" notes about them...bet that slows them down.

my uncle said it costs upwards of $150K to put speeds humps on a neighborhood street...sounded very pricey to me, but i wasnt about to question him because he has always been right on about those types of things...

You could always teach your kids not to play in the street, but I guess that's out of fashion in the current zeitgeist, or something.

A local news station here did a story on speeding through neighborhoods.

http://www.woai.com/troubleshooters/...E-59FE015A8782