The new speed limits in urban areas (30 km/h on many roads) have not yet put an end to one piece of street furniture that dominates the streets: speed bumps. Their purpose is to reduce the speed of the vehicle, but they also cause other side effects, such as various damages to the vehicle.
Tires
The element that hits the speed bump directly is the tire. If you go over one of these undulations at a certain speed, they will suffer damage very similar to that suffered when you hit a curb when parking.
The tyre may be deformed or even have bulges and cuts in the tread or sidewalls, as the condition of speed bumps is not particularly good in many places in our country. There is money to install them… but no one remembers to maintain them.
Suspensions
If you’ve ever run through a rocky area, or simply walked through environments with loose rocks, you’ll have noticed that your knees take a beating. It’s a bit like what happens when you go over those bumps of asphalt to plastic without slowing down properly.
All components of the suspension system are subjected to very high stress. This primarily affects the shock absorbers, which have to work hard in a short period of time, but it also affects the springs and even the bearings of the suspension arms.
Other conditions
Driving aggressively on speed bumps ends up causing clearances in components such as the engine silent blocks, seriously affecting driving comfort and, if not replaced, even affecting the mechanics. In addition, you can end up altering the geometry of the steering and axles, damaging the parallel: in this way your tyres (back to square one) will wear unevenly and you will have to change them before time.
We cannot forget that these jumps end up causing misalignments in the plastic parts that make up the passenger compartment, causing those unpleasant creaking and creaking sounds when you drive.
According to calculations from a study by the Euromaster chain of workshops, the damage caused by speed bumps can cost up to about 1,000 euros in repairs. Be careful, tires and shock absorbers are part of the vehicle’s safety triangle and should be changed regularly, but without a doubt that extra punishment can shorten their life by up to 50%.
Beyond the cost, the problem is that these bumps end up damaging elements that can seriously compromise the safety of the vehicle. With tyres or suspension in poor condition, it is easier to lose control of the vehicle in an extreme situation such as emergency braking or an evasive manoeuvre.
Fortunately, Pere Navarro, director of the General Directorate of Traffic, Pere Navarroassured that “in the 30 streets there is no point in speed bumps. We trust that little by little we will see how they disappear.” Let’s hope so. In the meantime, try to brake progressively when you approach it, not when you are already on the speed bump, following our advice.
