Speed humps bad for environment

Graham Sole

02 April 2007 11:32

After years of drivers complaining how speed humps ruined their suspension and axles, now motorists are being warned they are also ruining the environment.

An eco-friendly inventor in Norwich said his year-long study found speed humps increased the CO2 emissions from his car.

Green experts agree that the rise in the number of sleeping policemen was likely to have contributed to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions.

Graham Sole, 55, of Dereham Road, has monitored his fuel usage and emissions from his two litre diesel Vauxhall Astra for a year.

Mr Sole, who hit the headlines in 1998 after he invented a way to convert his Rolls-Royce to run on natural gas, said: "According to the manufacturer I should have an output of 1,400 kilos of CO2 emissions each year.

"By measuring the fuel usage and by using GPS I have worked out that I am actually putting out an extra 900 kilos because of all the speed humps I have to drive over and by having to

take alternative routes because the council closed off certain roads.

"Those speed humps caused a third more carbon emissions for me in 12 months.

"I believe that people's speed should be kept down, but we should be getting the police

to do that rather than putting in bits of highway furniture."

UEA's Carbon Reduction Project CRed backed the findings, and spokesman Marcus Armes said: "More gear changes and driving at higher revs would lead to burning up more fuel.

"Urban driving produces more emissions because you're stopping and starting more,

and expending fuel without moving while waiting at junctions.

"However, I wouldn't suggest we remove speed humps on that evidence as public safety is paramount in this case."

This week it was revealed that UK greenhouse gas emissions, which the Government has pledged to

cut radically, are actually soaring.

Emissions of the principal greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, from power stations, motor vehicles and homes, amounted to 560.6 million tons last year, 6.4 million tons higher than in 2005.

The increase of 1.15pc means that Britain's emissions are now at the highest level since Labour came to power a decade ago, nearly 3pc above 1997 levels.

Mr Armes said: "It doesn't surprise me that the figures are up because we are getting a lot more energy from coal now.

"We have really just got to work an awful lot harder, use more renewable energy and be more energy efficient.

"People also have a lot of gadgets now which are left charging overnight or left on standby, and this wastage of energy is worth a couple of power stations now alone."

Have you invented an eco-friendly product? Contact reporter Kim Briscoe on 01603 772419 or

e-mail kim.briscoe@archant.co.uk

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