The new speed limits in urban areas (30 km/h on many roads) have not, for now, put an end to an element of street furniture that dominates the streets: speed bumps. Their mission is to slow down the vehicle, but they also cause other side effects, such as various damage to the vehicle.
tires
The element that hits directly with the speed bump is the tire. If you get past one of these undulations at a certain speed they will deal damage very similar to what they take when you hit a curb while parking.
It is possible that the tire is deformed or even has bumps and cuts on the tread or sidewalls, since the condition of the speed bumps is not especially good in many places in our country. There is money to mount them… but nobody remembers the maintenance.
suspensions
If you have ever run through an area with stones, or simply walked through environments with loose rocks, you will have verified that your knees end up punished. It’s a simile to what happens when you go over those asphalt-to-plastic humps without slowing down properly.
All suspension system components are under very high stress. It mainly affects the shock absorbers, which have to work a lot 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 silentblocks, greatly harming ride comfort and, if they are not changed, even end up affecting the mechanics. In addition, you can end up altering the geometry of the steering and axles, damaging the parallel: in this way your tires (we return to the starting point) will wear out irregularly and you will have to change them prematurely.
We cannot forget that these jumps end up causing mismatches in the plastic parts that make up the passenger compartment, causing those unpleasant crickets and creaks when you drive.
According to calculations from a study by the Euromaster workshop chain, the damage caused by speed bumps can cost about 1,000 euros in repairs. Eye, tires and shock absorbers are part of the safety triangle of the vehicle and should be changed regularly, but without a doubt that extra punishment can shorten its life by even 50%.
Beyond the cost, the problem is that these bumps end up damaging elements that can greatly compromise the safety of the vehicle. With tires or suspension in poor condition, it is easier to lose control of the vehicle in an extreme situation such as emergency braking or an avoidance maneuver.
Luckily, Pere Navarro, director of the Directorate General of Traffic, Pere Navarro, assured that «in the streets 30 the speed bumps make no sense. 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.
Source: Euromaster
