Safety and environmental benefits of intelligent speed bumps

Speed bumps are a common speeding prevention measure used to protect vulnerable road users, i.e. pedestrians and cyclists, near crosswalks in urban areas. They are also used to reduce traffic volumes, prevent overtaking, and allow a change in driving routine. However, conventional speed bumps have certain shortcomings, such as reduced driving comfort for all road users, potential vehicle damage and associated repair costs, delays for emergency vehicles and public transport vehicles, longer travel times and congestion, difficulties with snow removal in winter, the formation of ruts and potholes before or after such obstacles, and an increase in fuel consumption, traffic noise, and emissions of harmful gasses during braking and accelerating. Consequently, in recent years, intensive work has been done to solve the above problems by developing so-called intelligent speed bumps. Although evaluating the performance of these intelligent speed bumps in real-world environments is not yet widely available in scientific research, numerous patents have been filed in this field over the years. This paper provides an overview of several intelligent speed bumps that have been developed in recent years and discusses the results of investigations conducted on one such speed bump that is already widely used in practice.