Of strips & humps
A speed bump is a traffic calming feature of road design used to slow traffic, or reduce through traffic, via vertical deflection (such an apt description! Thanks Wikipedia..). There are many names for the speed bump, viz, speed breaker, sleeping policeman , kipping cop, speed hump, road hump , judder bar, ramp, etc. With the mushrooming of the various expressways, the speed breakers are gradually fading into the oblivion in the highways. But in the busy city roads, they are still a formidable feature.
I suddenly found myself wondering about the omnipresent yet often ignored speed breakers. I was introduced to a lovely appellation, namely, “rumble strip” about two decades back when the horizontal grey lines made their presence felt in front of the Guwahati Commerce College, just where the Chandmari Flyover ends. As the mildly jarring sensation shot through my spine as our dear Ambassador snaked through the rugged lines, I was pleasantly ruffled by the vibrating sensation that emanated after climbing the strips which are otherwise known as sleeper lines as well!
Later on, Google told me that rumble strips were first implemented on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey in 1952. As I take the same route day in and day out to my workplace, I feel the similar sensation over the Barapullah Bridge when my car vibrates over the soft contours of the rumble strips. And my mind fills up with the scent of the lovely momos of the unparalleled J14, and the vibrant colours of the dresses of the young college crowd in the region. I also find myself lost in the thoughts of the young love birds either sitting on the railings of the footpath of the lovely flyover, or just reclining on the iron sidebars looking out to the unknown future in the horizon….
Another type of speed breaker is the elephant hump. This refers to the sole, albeit majestic speed breaker that is enough to break your nose if you turn adventurous enough to not wear the seatbelt, or in the height of the adrenaline rush you forget to have a check at your speedometer. I remember a particular incident in the late 1990s when our very efficient driver Prodip was making our 6 year old Maruti 800 run at a cool 140 km per hour on NH 37, and just before entering Kaziranga, we encountered an elephant hump, and it was by the grace of the ROAD GOD that the poor car did not turn over. Even now, when I am sitting in my usual favourite seat (that is, the one diagonally opposite to the driver’s on the back row) I can feel my viscera going up to my chest when the speeding car crosses over an elephant hump!
When I was not so big, the strips and the humps were just there, taken for granted. And now, at this point of life when professional and personal lives are making it next to impossible to cherish the small wonders of life, the speed breakers (out of all things!!) are splashing collages of bygone images. Funny, na?
I suddenly found myself wondering about the omnipresent yet often ignored speed breakers. I was introduced to a lovely appellation, namely, “rumble strip” about two decades back when the horizontal grey lines made their presence felt in front of the Guwahati Commerce College, just where the Chandmari Flyover ends. As the mildly jarring sensation shot through my spine as our dear Ambassador snaked through the rugged lines, I was pleasantly ruffled by the vibrating sensation that emanated after climbing the strips which are otherwise known as sleeper lines as well!
Later on, Google told me that rumble strips were first implemented on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey in 1952. As I take the same route day in and day out to my workplace, I feel the similar sensation over the Barapullah Bridge when my car vibrates over the soft contours of the rumble strips. And my mind fills up with the scent of the lovely momos of the unparalleled J14, and the vibrant colours of the dresses of the young college crowd in the region. I also find myself lost in the thoughts of the young love birds either sitting on the railings of the footpath of the lovely flyover, or just reclining on the iron sidebars looking out to the unknown future in the horizon….
Another type of speed breaker is the elephant hump. This refers to the sole, albeit majestic speed breaker that is enough to break your nose if you turn adventurous enough to not wear the seatbelt, or in the height of the adrenaline rush you forget to have a check at your speedometer. I remember a particular incident in the late 1990s when our very efficient driver Prodip was making our 6 year old Maruti 800 run at a cool 140 km per hour on NH 37, and just before entering Kaziranga, we encountered an elephant hump, and it was by the grace of the ROAD GOD that the poor car did not turn over. Even now, when I am sitting in my usual favourite seat (that is, the one diagonally opposite to the driver’s on the back row) I can feel my viscera going up to my chest when the speeding car crosses over an elephant hump!
When I was not so big, the strips and the humps were just there, taken for granted. And now, at this point of life when professional and personal lives are making it next to impossible to cherish the small wonders of life, the speed breakers (out of all things!!) are splashing collages of bygone images. Funny, na?
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