[gearedup]

Originally Posted by bravo6

Also, has anyone considered what might happen if someone doesn't notice an unmarked angled speed breaker and goes over them at speed?

Okay that would lead to the risk of toppling over. That explains why it aint popular all over.
But could these angled speed breakers be a good idea atleast for the unmanned railway crossings?

[bravo6]

There's no cure for stupidity. We have seen people/bikes/cycles going under the barrier at manned crossings. They can just as easily fly over an angled SB at an unmanned crossing, as they do over a regular one.

IMV dictates that someone from the vehicle has to get down and physically look up and down the railway tracks to make sure there's no train or trolley approaching. Thanks to the dynamics of a train, the tracks are straight enough to have a pretty clear view on either side.

Besides trains usually...er.. "honk" near populated/unmanned crossings. If you can't see something so huge and hear something so loud, you shouldn't be driving!

One way to improve safety would be to have a solar powered signal that turns red and sounds an alarm when it detects the vibrations on the rails when a train/trolley is approaching. This will help those who don't mind waiting.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by gearedup

But could these angled speed breakers be a good idea atleast for the unmanned railway crossings?

It is risky but should do the job since not many bother to see what lies ahead there could be a risk if tripping over.

Originally Posted by bravo6

There's no cure for stupidity. We have seen people/bikes/cycles going under the barrier at manned crossings.

This will help those who don't mind waiting.

Originally Posted by bravo6

IMV dictates that someone from the vehicle has to get down and physically look up and down the railway tracks to make sure there's no train or trolley approaching.

IMV suggests a million things but..

Getting down and seeing both sides for a safe crossing is just not possible. People don't pay attention when then cross a normal Road what they'll get down and look at both sides when in a railway crossing.

This is what people would think:

"The driver of the train will honk anyway. Why should I be worried!"

Patience is what we all lack in. Waiting for one train to cross is difficult, people bend over with their scooters / bikes to reach home a few minutes early. The railway crossing stopper i.e the metal rod should be larger (in diameter) and preferably two poles at a bit gap to avoid such crossing by bending under.

Anurag.

[joybhowmik]

Angled speedbreakers may be a good idea. But , even ensuring that the regular speed breaker construction follows the guideline is a challenge. Simply because the vast majority of speed breakers in the country are illegal - i.e. they have been constructed without following the due process and construction plan - and more often than not due to the pressure put on road construction workers by uneducated and blissfully unaware local interest groups such as RWAs.
Attached the actual guideline and construction plan stipulated by the Indian Roads Congress.
Guideline for Speed Breaker:

1. Central Height: 10-12 cm; Shape: Parabola; Width: 3.5 metres; Length: same as road width.
2. Road humps should be painted in a 'V' shape and illuminated by solar cat's eyes (solar cells embedded on pavements/road that reflect sun rays and glow in the dark) to make them visible.
3. The humps should not be more than five metres away from the junction or the intersection.
4. Two signboards, one at 20 to 30 metres and another 10 metres away from the hump should be placed for the commuters to know about the road humps ahead. Intrusion of tree branches should be prevented.
5. Road humps should be put up only on the main roads and not on the cross roads.
6. In ‘rumble strips’, (humps that have around 5 to 10 strips together), the width of each strip is to be one foot and the gap between each strip, one foot.

[bravo6]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

People don't pay attention when then cross a normal Road what they'll get down and look at both sides when in a railway crossing.

This is what people would think:

"The driver of the train will honk anyway. Why should I be worried!"

Patience is what we all lack in.

Haha, perhaps they don't know a trains doesn't have good enough brakes to stop on a dime and let them pass?

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

Guideline for Speed Breaker:

1. Central Height: 10-12 cm; Shape: Parabola; Width: 3.5 metres; Length: same as road width.
2. Road humps should be painted in a 'V' shape and illuminated by solar cat's eyes (solar cells embedded on pavements/road that reflect sun rays and glow in the dark) to make them visible.

These two points are essential. Most humps I've seen are 15-16cm tall and 1.5-2feet wide! Unmarked SB's are invisible, especially when there is a tree canopy overhead.

[Midas]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

Attached the actual guideline and construction plan stipulated by the Indian Roads Congress.
Guideline for Speed Breaker:

If this this the actual guideline, I have never seen a single speed breaker following this guideline completely. On the other hand, majority of speed breakers violate every point given in this guideline. I guess the road construction workers misread it as DON'Ts instead of DOs

[anoop.nair]

Cheer up! This should help those non regular commutes. The danger is when one over-speeds knowing that the speed breaker is virtual.

[NaXal]

My two year old Aspire fell victim of a monster speed breaker. This is second hit during this two years of life.

Starting with my first experience.

Car was fully loaded with 5 heavy adults + language & I was driving towards Digha (popular sea beach tourist spot) from Kolkata.

There was a Shaktiman type truck with broken building materials (bricks / chunks of concrete / etc) followed by a Tata Sumo & then me. Unfortunately while crossing a set of 3 speed breakers, a huge chunk of brick/concrete block fell down from the truck & unfortunately landed on top of 2nd or 3rd speed breaker (not exactly sure). Since the Sumo was in between, I had no clue & went ahead with speed breaker crossing slowly. Just as my front cleared the first one, I hard that unfortunate sound.

Traffic was heavy & a bus was inches away from my boot & honking madly. I tried to ride it out but after some heart sinking grinding noise I got stuck.

I had to let out my passengers but still it wouldn't budge. Then a bus helper came running with a metal rod (may be the one they use for tyre change) & poked that chunk free for me to drive out.

Later, after returning I took it to Ford & surprisingly after a wash I myself too couldn't spot a single scratch mark anywhere. Lucky escape.

Second hit

Second one happened yesterday while coming to Tarapith (pilgrimage place) from Kolkata. Google map was showing a route via interior roads & that was almost 50kms less than the usual highway I take for this location. I have previously travelled on this route some 6/7 years ago & knew about this road to be narrow & slow due to passing via village with cattle & slower pedestrian & or such traffic. But family members were adamant that this one will make them seat less since 50kms savings will definitely translate to time saving.

Road surface was good but unfortunately it seemed every able person had put up couple of monster bumpers before & after their house.

Passed most of them with angular approach with minor taps. Which weren't audible but as a driver I felt the faint taps sometime. But one monster got me bad due to heavy traffic with my inability to do an angular approach. Massive grinding noise.

I felt like my own skin getting ripped off.

Yet to complete the return journey & eager to visit the ASC to inspect the damage.

:(

[Small Bot]

I find several of the speedbreakers in my office basement parking to be weird. Especially in the floors where cab cars are parked (probably to slow rash drivers down) They are small and sharp and if you go over them at any speed above 15-20 kmph, they are capable of launching your car several cms off the ground.

I ALWAYS slow down to crawling speed (5-10 kmph) for them, sometimes even allowing the creep mode (generally around 7 kmph) to take me over the worst of those. This causes a bit of irritation to cars behind me ("Hey, you little XXXX in that Brezza! Just go, man!"). So I started to wait until 15 minutes after cab pickup/drop timings to avoid 80% of the cabs too.

Irrespective of whether I'm driving my 12-year-old i10 or 6-year-old i20 or a-month-old Brezza, I'm going to baby my car over any speedbreakers or potholes, and that's that. Others should make their peace with me. <shrug>