Road Hump

The official, legal term for what are more commonly known as 'speed humps', designed to slow and control vehicular traffic.

Road humps come in various forms -

  • round top humps
  • sinusoidal humps
  • speed cushions
  • flat top humps 

Flat top humps should be used principally at junctions, and also to reinforce priority to walking and cycling across side roads.

Of the first three types - round top humps, sinusoidal humps, and speed cushions - sinusoidal humps are the most comfortable to cycle over. Speed cushions should also be avoided because they tend to encourage 'veering' - motorists steering for the gaps between them - which can create conflicts with cycle traffic.

As a general rule, speed humps should not be used as a means of 'discouraging' through-traffic. If there is a problem with excess motor traffic, that should be addressed with traffic reduction measures such as modal filtering, to create low-traffic neighbourhoods. Genuinely low-traffic environments that are well-designed will rarely need any kind of speed control at all.