The ones installed in Pune and Noida were removed soon and “tyre killer” speed breakers in Ahmedabad hardly work
Traffic violations and virtually non-existent traffic discipline are plaguing all major cities in India. People usually resort to taking wrong routes to save time and fuel, not realizing that their lives are priceless. This puts them in grave danger of hurting themselves and putting other road-goers as well.
Tyre killer speed bumps are a stunning idea to keep this activity in check. For all vehicles going in the right direction, this is just a regular speed breaker. But god forbid, if someone goes the wrong way, integrated spikes will penetrate tyres, making them unusable. But such speed bumps in Ahmedabad tell a different story altogether.
What are tyre killer speed bumps?
One has to understand how this system works. This type of speed breaker has integrated spikes in them. These spikes are spring-loaded and they contract when vehicles pass through them the right way. If someone stumbled on them from the wrong way or opposite direction, it will not contract and said spikes will stay put.
These sturdy spikes should then pierce through tyres of said vehicles and render them useless. These spikes not just create a puncture that could be repaired. But looking at their size, could leave the tyre destroyed, once and for all. This should have created enough fear in civilians to not break traffic rules. Because tyres ain’t cheap.
Pune was the first city to get these tyre killer speed breakers. Pune is a large city with a large repository of personal and commercial cars, motorcycles and other commercial vehicles. The first tyre killer speed breaker could be seen near Amanora.
Soon, Delhi-NCR jumped into this bandwagon with Noida implementing it at multiple locations at once. Ahmedabad followed too. This should have been an epitome of traffic rules enforcement in India. But instead, both Pune and Noida removed these breakers. The ones in Ahmedabad hardly work too.
Tyre Killer Speed Bumps In Ahmedabad – Do they even work?
As covered by News18 Gujarati, these speed breakers hardly work. When motorcycles, cars or trucks come from the opposite direction, the spikes in these speed breakers should stay put and cause damage to tyres. In reality, these spring-loaded spikes are retracting inside even when the vehicle is coming from the opposite direction.
This odd behavior has given road users the confidence that these “tyre killer” speed breakers don’t even bite, let alone kill. As seen in the video, we can see all sorts of vehicles going on these breakers like nothing and cross it with no damage. Even though this is a very good idea, there are a few drawbacks. If there is a newcomer to the city, who is not aware of these, he might potentially lose his tyres in the best case scenario. In the worst case scenario, there could be a fatal crash with casualties as well.
