[CrAzY dRiVeR]

This thread is more of a rant, unfortunately. Witnessed a near miss accident yesterday - an SUV braking hard to avoid running over a scooter. As expected on our cultured roads- the driver started singing at the scooterguy, he started singing back - and my mind sat down by the roadside penning down this thread.

For the culprit was this -

Rumble Strips! More like a one night stand between the lane markers and speed breakers - neither here nor there!

Rumble strips, also known as sleeper lines, alert strips are a road safety feature to alert inattentive drivers of potential danger, by causing a tactile vibration and audible rumbling transmitted through the wheels into the vehicle interior.

I wonder why we need it - we have potholes to do the above job!

Anyways, the real question is - what to do when these strips are drawn unscientifically across our roads like a fashion statement - there are dozen set of such strips within 3kms of my house to the main junction!

To slow down or not?

I have two 2-wheelers in the house, one dismisses these like Superman mocks bullets. The smaller scooter though - feels like its falling apart if I do anything over 20 kmph over these strips. There is no option but to slow down, else my teeth will fall out for sure.

With the car - its just the opposite. Its either second gear or fifth gear and nothing in between. You see - somehow in third and fourth gears - they shake up the whole cabin - whereas in fifth gear around 50 kmph and above - the car irons them out completely. At the occassional instance where I was caught in third gear at 30 kmph over these, felt like the dashboard would shake loose. Strangely enough - state transport drivers seem to enjoy the 'kadakadakadak' sound it makes while they bully their way over it like the chassis and body will go either ways.

So I see most car guys gunning for it when they approach these strips, whereas some slow down. Buses and heavy vehicles not even bothered! And two wheelers being forced to slow down, an accident waiting to happen. Everytime I slow down because I'm caught at a wrong speed for it - I am being extra worried about rear ending - because most people dont want to slow down on a perfectly good road just because of these lines!

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!

Or is someone copying the western world, but without understanding and implementing the full purpose?

Service centers would be happy fixing many rattling dashboards soon.

Here's a quick video of a portion of the stretch of road I take each day from home to office. Within 3.5kms, you can spot 10 set of these rumble strips! These are not very small ones and you can see the visible and audible impact of it, within the cabin - and my car is not known for a harsh ride quality either.

PS - Those who don't have time to watch the full video, skip to the section between 2:20 and 2:45.

https://youtu.be/OV2-68KV-Y0

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Street Experiences Section. Thanks for sharing!

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

This thread is more of a rant, unfortunately.

I wonder why we need it - we have potholes to do the above job!

I found your rant quite funny for a change. No one does take these rumbler strips seriously atleast within the city limits. They are more of an enjoyment than the purpose they are put there. I experienced the so called rumbler strips on NH3 when I did Indore trip and these were actually mini speed breakers. Result was a bulge in the tyre, rattles in the dashboard and a hole in the pocket. The rumbler strips were meant on highways to keep the doze friendly drivers awake with the vibration and sound. This was due to a knee jerk reaction to the increasing deaths on the highways as one of the reasons root caused was driver sleeping at the wheel.

There was another version of these rumbler strips with some fluorescent inserts on the roads which give a much sharper jolt than the normal strips. All one does is use the cuss words in plenty for the authorities.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

I found your rant quite funny for a change. No one does take these rumbler strips seriously atleast within the city limits.

Trust Bangalore to improvise on this front.

The newer ones being implemented since the last couple of months are quite thick enough - thats its not easy to ignore them unless you're at speed. Especially with scooters!

Originally Posted by ghodlur

The rumbler strips were meant on highways to keep the doze friendly drivers awake with the vibration and sound. This was due to a knee jerk reaction to the increasing deaths on the highways as one of the reasons root caused was driver sleeping at the wheel.

True. But nowadays its getting implemented every 300 - 500m within city roads as well. Hopefully this is just a Bangalore phenomenon.

[Geo_Ipe]

I've encountered many of these on the Chennai - Bangalore highway. At highway speeds, I've never bothered slowing down for these as the noise/vibration lasts less than a second.

I find these useful when they are placed at intersections when we can expect a villager on his Splendor to suddenly dart across! I'm alert and honk continuously when one of these rumbles me. If there's no intersection, well & good!

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Result was a bulge in the tyre, rattles in the dashboard and a hole in the pocket.

I'm not sure these are high/sharp enough to cause tyre damage. Are you sure it's these strips are the culprits that got your tyre?

[NPX]

Encountered these rumble strips many times. They can be dangerous as well as amusing.

The dangerous one:
Once i was driving from Ahmedabad to Jaipur at night via Udaipur. There comes a tunnel at Udaipur which is wide and have a good surface. I was going at 90 kmph and there was no traffic at all as it was close to midnight. At the exit of the tunnel towards Jaipur there is a left turn and right there at the middle of the turn there is a rumble strip. You cannot see this rumble strip while exiting the tunnel because it is on turn, the road is going down and our eyes take time to adjust the view when you exit the tunnel. So when I exited the tunnel I turned left and saw the rumble strip and didn't do anything thinking that it's just another poor rumble strip. But, I was wrong. The car drifted heavily towards right while going over the strips may be because tyres lost their grip. I couldn't do anything apart from braking but the car still drifted to right towards the median wall. As there was no traffic and I was driving in middle, there was no mishap and the car stabilized after exiting the rumble strip. After few hundred metres there is another rumble strip and again it was on turn at the end of the ramp, this time we decided to have fun and deliberately let the car drifted and enjoyed the Tokyo drift

The amusing one:
This time we were on road trip to Goa. I was sleeping in the car after driving from Bhavnagar (Gujarat) to Mumbai whole night and now my friend was driving. There is a section of straight road between Kohlapur and Belgaum where the rumble strips are placed at unequal distance but in a pattern. The distance between strips keep on decreasing as you drive along. So, it produces an amusing sound (some may find it annoying as it won't let you sleep). We stopped at the McDonald's for breakfast and I saw Volvo buses going at speeds and producing this amusing sound on the strips. That was a nice experience. I bet it won't let you sleep.


Also see this

https://youtu.be/yLBOWO0s0bU

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by Geo_Ipe

I'm not sure these are high/sharp enough to cause tyre damage. Are you sure it's these strips are the culprits that got your tyre?

Very much sir. As I said they were supposed to be rumbler strips but someone got unusually brilliant and ended up making them mini speed breakers. These were before and after villages. I guess the earlier laid rumbler strips didn't work and the actual speed breakers were unanimously rejected by the villagers. So the authorities decided to please all by making mini speed breakers. These were two size bigger than the rumbler strips and two sizes smaller than the actual speed breakers. I will let your imagination run wild of them.

The funny part was the mini speed breakers were left unpainted and it was difficult to guage them from a distance. On one occasion early in the morning when there was minimal traffic while crossing a village I bumped into them and after reaching home I saw the bulge in the tyre.

[arunramaswamy]

Honestly I feel this is a bad application more than anything else and actually does not serve the purpose it is intented to. Rumbler strips are line that are usually laid on the sides of highway roads. Normally these strips create vibrations whenever someone loses their attention and the car starts to move towards the sides. This vibration will alert the driver to regain control of their vehicle.

In this case, not sure what these strips set out to do. I have seen these in Chennai highways as well.

Probably a case of doing applying without understanding the true application.

[earthian]

In MP and some parts of Maharashtra, rumble strips are used to warn drivers of a speed breaker, which is positioned a few yards after the strips. Since the speed breakers, over tome, lose their warning paint, these rumble strips are indeed useful to the oblivious driver.

Mind you, i am not defending the use of rumble strips all over the road or the design-just saying that it serves a purpose. There could be better solutions, i am sure. But given the choice of an unmarked speed breaker and a speed breaker preceded with rumble strips, i would take the letter any day.

[gthang]

Not sure what the problem with rumble strips are. They are a potential life saving safety feature.

They indicate to the driver to pay attention, for intersections and to regulate speed on turns and such.

Usually most effective at night for drowsy drivers.

If people brake abruptly on seeing them, speed up to find the harmonic speed, or continue at a speed that puts the vehicle out of control on a public road, I fail to see how it is the fault of the rumble strips, obviously it's done it's job of getting the driver's attention. The reaction depends on driver education.

Cheers.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Anyways, the real question is - what to do when these strips are drawn unscientifically across our roads like a fashion statement - there are dozen set of such strips within 3kms of my house to the main junction!

What exactly is a scientifically designed rumble strip? If it alerts the driver, it has done its job.

[Spinnerr]

... and who would have thought these rumble strips can be fun too.

Check this out, in Japan, its called a 'Melody road'. Drive over the strips at the right speed and you will rewarded with a melody.



Details here.

The patent-applied-for concept works by using grooves cut at very specific intervals in the road surface. Just as travelling over small speed bumps or road markings can emit a rumbling tone throughout a vehicle, the melody road uses the spaces between to create musical notes.

The system was the brainchild of Shizuo Shinoda, who accidentally scraped some markings into a road with a bulldozer before driving over them and realizing that he could produce a variety of tones by varying the spacing between the grooves

Check out the video in this link.

[paragsachania]

Speedbreakers or Rumble strips? Both of theses when confronted by a first timer on a particular stretch will result in confusion and often abrupt braking maneuvers. Adding to this, it will also depend on the class of vehicle which is driven on this.

A 2 wheeler like a scooter is likely to slowdown than an SUV or a Bus/Truck. Similarly a hatch with punny wheels is also going to slow down considerably than a sedan or an MUV with bigger wheels.

Lastly, irrespective of the class of vehicle, a confused driver is likely to confuse rest of the traffic even if he's driving an SUV.

At the end of it all, whether they are speedbreakers, marked or otherwise, or they are rumblers like these, one tailing will always end up with instances like these on regular basis if he/she is unaware of the road and regular presence of such rumblers.

Personally, I will prefer these rumbler strips to speedbreakers. As mentioned in earlier responses, they serve their purpose. I normally lift my leg off the accelerator pedal while crossing them on highways where they are mostly installed at small intersections. I can't imagine speedbreakers here where I have to come to dead stop and start from 1st or 2nd gear.

Technically when you release your leg off the A Pedal, you invariably become more alert as you know you are passing an intersection where otherwise you would want to floor it and pass that place as soon as possible.

However, what is negative about these rumblers is the way many ignore their presence (or know their presence) and speed up without slowing down. It totally kills the actual purpose and poses threat to others as well who want to slow down a bit. In a nutshell, I am OK to have them more on highways than inside city roads where I would always vote for those pedestrian friendly speedbreakers that serve as zebra crossing as well.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by gthang

Not sure what the problem with rumble strips are. They are a potential life saving safety feature.

Originally Posted by earthian

In MP and some parts of Maharashtra, rumble strips are used to warn drivers of a speed breaker, which is positioned a few yards after the strips.

Originally Posted by msdivy

What exactly is a scientifically designed rumble strip? If it alerts the driver, it has done its job.

Agreed guys. I guess I should have given more of a context how this is being implemented here. Let me try to make it clearer with some more pics, which could take a while.

Meanwhile, a question - what do you feel is an ideal distance between such rumble strips, on the same straight road? Every kilometer?

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Meanwhile, a question - what do you feel is an ideal distance between such rumble strips, on the same straight road? Every kilometer?

Not sure about the ideal distance here but it certainly depends on the location of the 'Ideal' Hazards. If these are located closer then you may have these rumblers closer to each other at 2 or 3 positions.

That is exactly how the speedbreakers are placed on certain roads at the beginning and end of a village that is less than 500 meters some times.

Because to me, the placement or the very existence of these rumblers is not random but for a reason and that reason is a potential hazard and not to keep one's speeds in check.