It's a Speed Bump, Not a Monster

I love driving and being out on the road...but sometimes, before you can get out on that open road, you have to get out of the parking lot. And these days, in order to protect other drivers and pedestrians, you come across lots of speed bumps.

Speed bumps come in all sizes, but pretty much the same shape - a smallish hill of concrete or plastic that makes a driver slow down to cross the bump. No matter what kind of speed bump you encounter, everyone crosses it differently.

I personally like to go over it rather quickly - especially in my SUV. I mean it's not going to damage anything underneath my car since we're already high off the ground, and the quicker I can get over it, the quicker it will be over. Boom, Boom - and done. If I'm in the sedan, I would take the speed bump a little slower but I certainly wouldn't snail my way over it - because I know I'm still high enough off the ground that the speed bump wouldn't scrape the underside of my car.

Routinely, when coming in and out of work, I have to go over at least two speed bumps each way. Yesterday, while leaving work, I was following two cars that were just your normal, everyday sedans. the car in the front came to a COMPLETE halt in front of the speed bump before snailing it's way over. And then they would speed along the 1/8th of a mile it took to get to the next speed bump - where they would proceed to come to a complete halt. The car in front of me didn't come to a complete halt but she sure did like to brake through the whole ordeal. It was so frustrating - I wanted to roll down my window and yell, 'It's a bump, not a monster!'

But these are just some of the worst case speed bump drivers. I've seen many cars try to avoid a full bump drive over by swerving to the far right of the road (where the bump does not extend) so that their passenger-side wheels don't have to go over the bump - but only their driver side wheels have to endure. In the long run, doesn't that make your car quite unbalanced? And besides, you're not saving your passengers any grief by not letting that side of the car go over the speed bump.

I think the worst is when you have to go over a bump and instead of having front and back wheels go over it two at a time, you have to pretty much go over the bump one wheel at a time. That happens to me when I go to a particular little mall in my neighborhood. The way I go into the parking lot has me at a angle where I can't get over the bump two-by-two....it's one, after the other, after the other...you get my picture. And the whole car just ends up rocking side to side.

But just take note, the next time you approach a speed bump - how do you approach it? If you're not a corvette or a camaro or some other low lying car, I don't expect a full stop to be made before you proceed...think about it....that bump isn't going to come up and get you!