Akademik

(SPEED hump)

n.

A low ridge that runs across a street and that is designed to slow down cars. A speed hump is a longer, flatter version of a speed bump.

New York City, prepare for the "speed hump."

A hump, not to be confused, traffic engineers say, with the noisier speed bump, is made of asphalt or concrete and is built across streets to slow traffic to under 25 miles per hour.

— Garry Pierre-Pierre, "Listen: No Thump. speed humps Are Lower. Also Quieter, Kinder and Gentler," The New York Times, September 2, 1996

Takoma Park has had its ups and downs on the issue of speed humps.

Residents lobbied vigorously to have the speed-reducing mounds placed in their heavily traveled streets as a safety measure, while commuters griped about the nuisance and potential damage to cars.

Construction of speed humps on six Takoma Park streets was completed last week, but even as they were built, the bumps made waves: some are too high and need shaving down, city officials acknowledged. Some, built along federal Department of Transportation guidelines, are too small, and are ineffective at slowing speeding motorists, the officials noted.

But the rest, they said, are just right at 12 feet across, four inches high.

— Joanne Ostrow, "Takoma Park's 'Humps' Move Full Speed Ahead," The Washington Post, September 2, 1983