Letter: The council must get rid of speed bumps in Edinburgh

Should the council remove speed bumps in Edinburgh?

OTTO Inglis raises the issue of speed bumps (Letters, January 22). Surely the time has now come for the council to get rid of all speed bumps.

We now have 20mph speed limits on most of our city roads, so are they still necessary?

I would also question whether they are safe and do not in themselves create a hazard for drivers. The emergency services must be restricted in the time it takes to attend calls.

The financial cost to the motorist is considerable. A friend who has a small car and is a conservative driver has required coil springs replaced three times in the past five years.

Brian Monteith: Why 20mph is the wrong speed limit

Speed bumps over the city are all different shapes and sizes and that makes driving even more difficult, unless you are fortunate enough to have a four by four or a Panzer/Tiger tank.

If one considers the recent inclement weather when ice and snow covered these hazards, for anyone travelling in unfamiliar territory, lives may have been put in unnecessary danger.

In the area where I live, vehicles coming up or down Ulster Drive and Ulster Crescent over the speed bumps either could not get over them going up as they lost momentum and ended up sliding back down the hill, or those coming down were unaware where these hazards were, well hidden by the snow, and left to basically sledge uncontrolled downhill towards the main arterial A1.

Back in the bad weather of 2010 this area was basically cut off to vehicular traffic.

Some of the speed bumps on these hills are no more than 200 yards from the main Willowbrae Road, which makes controlling the approach in either direction a motorist’s nightmare.

Perhaps somebody from the Health And Safety Executive could investigate.

I Archibald, Paisley Avenue, Edinburgh