[NiInJa]

I am a big fan of rumbler strips (when implemented sensibly of course). They serve the purpose on highways and within city limits as well. They would not have been such a necessity everywhere if people stuck to speed limits and took road signs seriously. For people on two wheelers, its a real blessing as they have to go dead slow on these to avoid severe vibrations, reducing the possibility of accidents due to skidding at turns or intersections. I use a bike with very stiff suspension and dont find a problem with.
Now comes the real stupid part:

- People find a work-around to dodge these strips on highways. Example: Just before the Mumbai Pune expressway ends on Pune side, there is a long series of strips for vehicles to slow down as there road becomes narrow and there is a sharp curve ahead. Many cabbies take switch to the service lane (as it is not painted with these strips) to dodge it and drive at high speed on service lane

- Cars usually dont respect these strips and dont slow down, but as two wheelers have no option, those two wheelers tailed by four wheelers are at risk. I have seen people honking at those innocent bikers for slowing down.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Since you started the thread with a perspective, valid one at that due to the incident you experienced, I think we all would like to have a discussion on both

Absolutely! All your points are accepted whole heartedly, without doubt. And thank god you used google earth, which I had totally forgotten about! Very helpful tool in such discussions.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

The road all the way from NES Signal (where you start the video) till the end of CRPF Campus has:

- Too many breaks in the medians, irregularly where many make U-Turn often cutting across from a bylane on the left side

- Entry and exit for institutions : Rail Wheel Factory, Kendriya Vidyalaya, CRPF Campus Gates, Railway Hospital etc

- Too many by lanes merging into this wide road

- Bus stops on regular basis

I can imagine how things will be if there are no rumblers here. Each one will never bother to slow down when approaching these locations and accidents will be the norm of the day.

In fact, on this road, they shut down the New Town as well as the Pedestrian signals super early mornings or late night or even at noon sometimes on a week day. During such instances, the rumblers places closer to the intersection really helps to warn motorists.

Agreed about the road, and wish I could quote every picture independantly, but in qoutes - there is no way to do that. I feel that the situation is certainly overdone. There are a couple of cases where the median opens up post a corner, and yes - the rumble strips are useful there to warn vehicles because the eyes may not have spotted the hazard yet, but on a pretty straight road - eyes should be cautious enough to spot these, specially within such small gaps of within 350 - 500 metres of each other.

One set of rumble strip for each hazard is just bad management, just like its bad management to have so many hazards on that road. Negative + Negative =/= Positive.

Got a couple more such examples too, where they have certainly gone overboard with the strips - that they serve no outcome other than annoy people. Will post soon.

Originally Posted by gthang

I don't think rumble strips will do any damage other than an audible alert. If something does rattle itself loose, it's something that should have been fixed anyways.

Depends on the vehicle too - A scooter especially is very vulnerable on such strips due to the small tyres. Case in point - read above from the gentleman who had to upgrade his scooter to a motorcycle to avoid shoulder discomfort.

Riding over a 100 such strips on a daily basis will surely accelerate aging of a car's cabin. In any case, thats how vehicles are torture tested before launch, isn't it?

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Almost every rumble strip is just before an intersection, which is fine in my opinion. This might be risky for two-wheelers though, if they are weaving through traffic.

Agreed that some of them are useful. But the road will be full of strips if they start drawing one for every potential hazard. There are places where these are drawn without any hazards too - on top of Hebbal - Yelahanka flyover (Near Jakkur Airfield) for example.

Coming down from the flyover towards Hebbal, you find three set of strips again. Useful to warn about the end of the flyover - but since the visibility straight ahead is for atleast a kilometer post the first strip, does it really need three strips to warn people? The third especially is irritating because of the need to brake for the speedbreaker, resulting having to cross them at awkward speeds and full massage mode.

Originally Posted by the_skyliner

I find these rumble strips quite useful on highways, especially at the accident prone locations.

Agreed. Some countries also seem to use these strips for enforcing lane discipline etc. Those would be acceptable uses IMO.

Originally Posted by vnabhi

I found out later that one can continue to drive on them at 80+ speeds

One of the issues. In our highways it is fine to maintain such speeds, and still get alerted without having much of a jolt in the cabin - but I see many people speeding up on such suburban roads, to avoid getting a jolt like in the video I shared above.

Also, your post also shows how most people would behave on such strips (No blame here). They do not want to slow down for such strips - these puts other more vulnerable vehicles like scooters and small cars in the firing lane when they (unexpectedly for these bigger vehicles) are forced to brake.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

I can literally see my entire dashboard and the wipers shuddering when I cross them. So much so, that my dashcam starts emergency recording

In my video - the camera stabilization is on, and the camera is headmounted and so - naturally stabilized from most shocks. Still you can see the effects from the strips. Its annoying, at the very least - specially when overdone.

Originally Posted by roy_libran

But, it's very different on different vehicles.

True. Though, no loss of balance happens with my car at any speed, except for the jolt. Taking the scooter at a bit higher speed (Say 30 kmph) can be a shocking experience though.

[itwasntme]

These strips also have an alarming tendency of destabilizing the rear end of empty LCVs & HCVs especially if they are braking at any angle on them.

I had a minor scare this morning on these strips when I was passing an empty Canter (me on the left, it was slowing down to turn right) which suddenly he braked hard just before and while on the strips. The Canter's entire rear axle went totally bonkers and swung out towards me. Luckily I was doing 80+ along with a safe margin so passed it without any effect.

Would have caught an unlucky 4W or 2W totally unawares.

[silverado]

These strips cause a lot of discomfort when you are riding a Cycle, especially if you are going downhill from a flyover. These jolts are transferred straight to your head which is very uncomfortable.

[bharatbits]

There are plenty of these on the Hyderabad Bangalore highway as well.

Out of curiosity, would the rumble be experienced in bigger cars like say a Fortuner, Innova or a Hexa or does the suspension/ tyres swallow them?

[venkyhere]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Whats the use anyways? How was it suddenly decided to draw so many of these all over our roads and highways? The particular one in the picture is right in the middle of a six lane stretch - within the city, that I just can't seem to understand what they are seeking to achieve from this exercise!

in your video, each of the rumblers are just before a cut/opening in the median to allow vehicles to cross/u-turn. So the fact that its put there, is not without logic. The fact that they are very close to each other and not well finished, is of course an irritant.

[Impala_123]

I regularly encounter these On Pune Bangalore highway from Satara on-wards towards Kolhapur. They are constructed like gradually reducing distance in between. Height of strips is also considerable. While passing over it at the end it produces severe vibrations and feel like loosening of trims, all the objects on dash gets misplaced. These are like punishment for drivers.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by venkyhere

in your video, each of the rumblers are just before a cut/opening in the median to allow vehicles to cross/u-turn. So the fact that its put there, is not without logic. The fact that they are very close to each other and not well finished, is of course an irritant.

It's not very logical to put it for every opening in the median, is it? Considering the situation - someone should have taken a call to use the strips only for the cases where it's really required (crossing that comes up after a corner, for example). But we know how our system works.

Anyways, your point is also accepted. However, here's a tougher challenge- yet another instance from my locality! - These three sets of strips seen from the satellite lies on a six lane flyover.

As seen in the second image, it's a straight flyover with no entry and exit anywhere. The hospital marked in the bottom of the second image is where the flyover comes down, and that is about 3 kms from these strips, and the strips themselves are about 2kms away from the entry point to the flyover.

Most vehicles carry highway speeds on this flyover, and it's only the two wheelers that suffer on these strips.

Originally Posted by itwasntme

I had a minor scare this morning on these strips when I was passing an empty Canter.

Originally Posted by silverado

These jolts are transferred straight to your head which is very uncomfortable.

Originally Posted by Impala_123

These are like punishment for drivers.

So it's well and truly not just me who feels the same.

Quite helpful in some situations as others have mentioned, but looks like the authorities need to spend more time to use these strips only where it is actually required.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Anyways, your point is also accepted. However, here's a tougher challenge- yet another instance from my locality! - These three sets of strips seen from the satellite lies on a six lane flyover.

Talking about rumblers to counter/reduce/check overspeeding on Elevated corridors like the one you referring to, how can I forget 10 of these in one direction (8.75 Km) on the BETPL flyover on Hosur road .



All these are in one direction but they are neither bone breakers for 2 wheelers or rattlers for cars and one can hardly feel them. So I do agree that the ones on Doddaballapura Road are indeed harsh in comparison and quite edgy too!

As seen in the second image, it's a straight flyover with no entry and exit anywhere. The hospital marked in the bottom of the second image is where the flyover comes down, and that is about 3 kms from these strips, and the strips themselves are about 2kms away from the entry point to the flyover.

And here is a set from below the same flyover and I realised they are placed because there is an entry to service lane (from YNK to Jakkur side) and also a strategic point to cross the road by pedestrians as seen early mornings. On the other side, there is no such opening to service lane but one of the barricade has been removed, may be to make way for pedestrians.



That said, another very bad implementation on our roads that I noticed are median/lane markers right from NICE Road (The worst) to City roads where suddenly a lane becomes non existent! But that is a different topic altogether.

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Good thread CrAzY dRiVeR.

While driving a car, I find the rumble strips more gentle to car than the unexpected speed breakers. But one problem with rumble strips: the car may drift to left or right without your control. Also the brakes may loose effectiveness while on the strips; it creates fly in the stomach.

In Pune, between University and Baner, we have speed breakers which are almost 10 ft long. These have a 3-4 feet ramp-up, 3-4 feet of plain top and then 3-4 feet of ramp down. These do not bang the car even if you notice them late. You don't loose control and you cannot ignore too. I found these better than rumble strips.

[vivek95]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Highways in Karnataka have a nice set of rumblers before each intersection. They start quite a bit before the crossing and initially they are spaced up quite a bit. As you get closer, the gap between them progressively reduces. It sounds like this - brr, brr, brr, brr-brr-brr, brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

EDIT

Oh yeah! How could I forget this? Thanks for the video!

These rumbler strips are mostly found on most highways in Maharashtra as compared to Karnataka. As far as NH4 is concerned, Mumbai-Pune-Kolhapur-Kagal sector has a hell lot of them. In Karnataka, the Kolhapur--Belgaum sector has rumbler strips at a few places. Beyond Belgaum towards Bangalore, I don't remember encountering any , but then my last drive on Belgaum--Chitradurga stretch was in April 2017, so I am not sure of the present status.

Yes, I too love that br-brr-brrrr sound and the feel You should pull over to the side and wait for premium buses like Volvo/Scania/Merc to pass over these rumbler strips when they are at good speeds. It feels nice to listen to that sound

[Sail]

My two cents on Rumble strips.

First I came across these strips 15 years back while driving in UK, mainly on Motor ways & connecting roads.

Batch of strips used to be there on road before any intersection / round-about. Sometime there were strips for longer distances in a single batch or there used to be in a batch of 2-3 places.

The main idea used to create physiological pressure on driver to reduce car’s speed. The batch of strips are so designed that, as you go closer to the intersection, the distance between two strips used be lesser and lesser. As a result, a driver used to feel (from tire noise) that car speed is still the same or increasing. And driver used to reduce car speed automatically. The strip were acceptable in height, so they never put excessive pressure on tires or suspension. However, motorway hard-shoulder used to be pretty high and whole car used to shake if mistakenly tires touches them.

I think our highway authority miss-calculated the concept / height of the rumble strips altogether.

Cheers,
Sail

[RishikeshK]

There are a bunch of them near my house in Pune as well. While some of them are of acceptable height, others are downright irritating. Their height increases are they are repeatedly repainted over. Interestingly, many strips break somewhere in between and two-wheelers are seen zig-zagging over them to pass through the broken gaps!

I feel they are useful only if their height is correct. Taller ones are just a pain - dashboards shaking, bicycle bottles falling off the holder, scooters vibrating to the point of losing balance is all that happens if the speed is anywhere above 5kmph!!!

[rahulskumar]

Have you tried Chembur-Santacruz link road ? I don't think you will find a road with more rumble strips anywhere in India.

Moreover with a stiff suspension in Jazz along with a hard tyre (like GY) , the complete vehicle shakes and we are forced to slow down below 20
Placing rumble strips every 50m is a bit too much from BMC

[typlo]

These rumble strips don't bother me anymore.

The potholes, non-existent roads and illegal (and legal but too many) speedbreakers on the Delhi-Noida-Ghaziabad routes are good enough for me. Replacing alloys has become a routine maintenance now