These days, the world seems to be moving faster and faster: everyone is saying "hurry up!" and the result is often speeding that puts drivers at risk. Traffic calming measures include things like speed bumps, speed humps, or even speed lumps. Speed bumps may not be the average driver's favorite thing to see, but they are incredibly helpful for safety and prevention of speeding. Here are some aspects to consider before installing a set of speed bumps in or near your parking lot.

Consider Your Reasons

When thinking about installing speed bumps, there should be thoughtful, specific goals. Often, speed bumps will discourage people from driving through your parking lot on their way to another street, and they definitely keep drivers from getting up to speed, risking dangerous collisions in your parking lot. If you know you'll have a lot of pedestrian traffic in your parking lot, the speed bump can serve the important function of slowing down distracted drivers and preventing any scares or injuries. Different parking lots deal with different problems, so the choice of location and design of your speed bump is likely to vary.

Making sure that the speed bump serves your actual reasons is a great goal - think about where pedestrians cross most often, where there are unexpected turns or blind corners, and where people tend to cut across your parking lot rather than going around. Working with a paving contractor like Empire Parking Lot Services can help you make sense of where the best spot would be for an asphalt speed bump in your lot.

Consider Your Materials

While speed bumps are available in materials like rubber or varieties like rumble strips, the most effective, durable, and noticeable speed bumps are usually made of asphalt. Asphalt is made of recycled materials, making it a very environmentally friendly option.

Every year, asphalt speed bumps can be repainted to make sure drivers see them and slow down in response. Asphalt is known as a more expensive material, but only if you look at the initial costs rather than the lifetime of the project. Long-term, cheaper materials fall apart or can be removed or damaged; asphalt is a permanent fixture of your parking lot that adds value and safety for years to come.

Many parking lot owners have experience with more temporary traffic calming solutions, realizing that their cheaper measures have ultimately been ineffective and are just eyesores that don't deter fast drivers. Broken, damaged rubber speed bumps can ultimately be dangerous if partially removed but not entirely eliminated. Empire Parking Lot Services can not only remove the old, ineffective traffic calming features, but they can also help redesign your traffic flow choices so that new asphalt speed bumps will have maximum effectiveness in your parking area. With professional and effective installation, asphalt speed bumps become a stable and permanent part of your parking lot.

Consider the Patterns

Speed bumps are painted to prevent people from driving full-speed over them, possibly hurting their cars and definitely reducing their effectiveness as a speed deterrent. Empire Parking Lot Services recommends a design, something other than a solid color, to ensure that visitors to your parking lot notice the dynamic chevron or striped design and distinguish it from other features of the road or path. The sooner a driver recognizes that a speed bump is coming, the more benefits you see in terms of slower traffic. 

Adding noticeable candy stripes or chevrons does more than simply alert drivers; when drivers notice a speed bump and slow down, they cause less wear and tear on the bump. Thus, the maintenance of occasionally repainting the speed bump is actually more than worth it, since it reduces the need to repair the speed bump. In essence, paint allows the drivers in your parking lot to treat the speed bump with care, rather than not noticing it and driving over it at high speeds.

Consider the Guidelines

Whether you know it or not, there are established Traffic Calming Guidelines that standardize how much of a speed bump, hump, or other strategy can be used. If speed bumps are too tall or broad, they can substantially harm cars, and the best practices from the Traffic Calming Guidelines ensure that your speed bump is a deterrent but not a harm. By following the guidelines, you can feel confident that your speed bumps are well within the limits of the law.

In addition to design principles, your speed bumps should be located in places that aid traffic flow, rather than hinder it, and provide positive slow-down effects for others. Pedestrians, cyclists, and persons with disabilities all benefit from a well-located speed bump that keeps people from driving too quickly through a tricky area where cars need to share the road. Lastly, the speed bumps may slow down drivers, but they need to be evaluated as to whether they could hamper emergency vehicles like ambulances, or if they would be able to avoid them safely or proceed through them without harm. 

Consider Your Contractor

When you choose a contractor, you want to make sure they are reliable and have valuable experience. Empire Parking Lot Services, for example, doesn't leave parking lot owners high and dry: we work with owners to make sure that they strategically place a speed bump in a place where it causes the most positive effects without any of the harm, and we conform to all regulations. We'll provide a variety of options and recommendations, so that owners and operators of parking lots feel informed and included in the process but also free to make their own decisions. We take budgets into consideration and help you get the most out of your money. 

Empire has your best interest in mind, so we'll talk through the entire project to make sure that you understand our process and can ask any questions you have. It's important that when you choose a speed bump installation contractor that you can trust them to advocate for the solution that solves your parking lot's problems.

If you are in need of a paving contractor in Southern California, contact Empire Parking Lot Services for a quote and consultation about your needs.