Ghyll Road: Speed Bumps Giving me the Hump

First of all, I’d like to apologise for the awful pun for the heading of this blog. But come on, how many of you can think of a better title for this blog?

Before I start, I really don’t want this post to turn into an unnecessary rant about speed bumps. But I have bottled this negative energy up for so long that I need to let it all out.

I also don’t want to come across as a typical boomer complaining about something so insignificant. However, I feel this may be impossible as even I will admit my response is a little bit OTT.

I’d also like to make clear that speed bumps or ‘sleeping policemen’ are not always bad. In fact, I’m totally for speed bumps if they’re by a school, or hospital maybe. These areas are always busy, and occasionally need people to be restrained with their speed.

But there are some speed bumps in particular that I have to contend with pretty much every day. These speed bumps were introduced just over a year ago now, and they have bought nothing but anger and frustration into my life. These pointless lumps are all along Ghyll Road in Heathfield.

Why Choose Ghyll Road?

The road in question goes right round the edge of Heathfield, through residential areas, a primary school, and an industrial estate. It can be used to cut off a significant chunk of congested roads in Heathfield. Therefore, it has always been seen as a little bit of a ‘rat-run’ for people wanting to cut off a few minutes of their journey.

This is clearly a problem for people living on the road. They don’t want lots of people speeding past in morning rush hour.

It’s also a problem for the school, as people are unfortunately known to speed past these areas whilst dropping their children.

You might think then, that this appears to be a perfect area for speed bumps to play a part in reducing speed and congestion on the road.

But here’s why I think you’re wrong.

What Was There Before?

The fact of the matter is, there were, and have been for many years speed bumps beside the school. These speed bumps have always done a great job at reducing the speeds of all the school parents at pickup time. And that’s exactly where they should be.

For years, there have also been traffic islands placed around this area. This helps to further reduce the speeds of 4x4s that breeze over the sleeping policemen as if they’re a cube of cheese.

What Was Proposed on Ghyll Road?

The original proposal was made quite a while ago now. The community groups of Heathfield rejoiced in the fact that this was ‘finally’ happening. But it was not without contention.

The scheme was estimated at a total of £150,000 and was to extend the traffic calming measures of speed bumps along the whole mile-long stretch of road. But Why?

If you look deep into past posts on community social media pages, you’ll find petitions for traffic calming measures.

These people claim that these speed-bumps are a godsend, and that they’ll improve the local area to no end.

There are claims on these pages that the road was ‘almost like a main road’ and ‘has so many accidents along the road’. If this were the case, I would be totally in favour of some traffic calming measures. (Unfortunately, I can neither provide evidence of these comments or screenshots as it is a private group, and I will respect privacy)

But here are the cold, hard, facts

Whilst the road was certainly a rat run for people living in the town, it was a necessary one. For people who lived in the town, it almost served as the backbone for getting around the town. The heavily congested High Street is full of through traffic that wasn’t stopping in the town. Ghyll Road was an easy way for people to get from one side of Heathfield to another.

Looking at crash statistics on the road, it appears that the additional claim that accidents happen on the road is a baseless claim. The road according to https://www.crashmap.co.uk, there was one, slight incident along the road in the last 5 years.

So does that seem like a legitimate reason to put harsh speed bumps along the entire stretch of road? I’m not sure it does, particularly when the bumps in question cost £150,000.

I now have to try and avoid these bumps as my car is not a 4×4 like so many others in this rural area.

In Conclusion

These speed bumps can ruin the suspension on my car if driven over excessively. It adds considerable time to my day avoiding them, and it’s made the high street more congested than ever before.

This is probably the most negative thing you’ll ever see me write on this website, and I can’t believe it’s about speed bumps. I also never thought I’d feel so strongly about something so superfluous, but there we go!