Letter to the Council advocating sinusoidal humps for Gorsy Lane
PH Owens
John Drake
Copy To: H Norris
RE: ESTABLISHMENT OF ROAD HUMPS - GORSEY LANE AREA Dear Mr Drake, Thank you for your letter of 26th March 2002, in response to our objection to the proposed road humps in the Gorsey Lane area. I am writing to confirm that we wish to sustain our objection. I would be grateful if you could inform us of the venue for the relevant traffic committee meeting so we can attend. I should emphasise at this point that we fully appreciate the safety benefits of reduced traffic speeds and we support in principle the installation of humps on this area. We have no complaint with the proposed location or spacing of the features. However, while pedal cycles do not tend to pose a problem with respect to excessive speed, cyclists do suffer disproportionate discomfort from traffic calming measures compared to the drivers of vehicles at which the features are targeted. Our objection is intended in a constructive spirit to urge the choice of a hump design that causes less discomfort to cyclists. Humps with a sinusoidal profile are similar to round-top humps but have a shallower initial rise. They were developed in the Netherlands and Denmark to provide a more comfortable ride in traffic calmed areas. In the UK, sinusoidal humps were first installed in Edinburgh, where they were found to be as effective at reducing vehicle speeds as conventional humps, but far more comfortable to cycle over. The sinusoidal humps in Edinburgh were constructed by a DLO team without special training or instruction and were completed satisfactorily at no additional cost. Traffic Advisory Leaflet 10/00 provides a summary of TRL reports on discomfort, noise, and ground-borne vibration of road humps. It can be seen from this figure, extracted from the TAL, that the discomfort rating for cyclists riding over a sinusoidal hump is about half that for a round-top hump at a moderate cycling speed of 10mph. The benefit of a 5m hump is even greater still, reducing discomfort by a factor of three. Gorsey Lane is a key link in the "core network" of the proposed Greenway Network being developed in conjunction with the Mersey Valley Partnership. The road forms part of an orbital route around the Town Centre. Yours sincerely
Pete Owens
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