‘Upside down’ speed bumps baffle Aussies
An American tourist’s viral video about “mean” Australian speed bumps has left locals confused. Now, we know the truth.
Aussies have been bamboozled at the sight of a bizarre speed bump, spotted by an American tourist in Australia.
A woman named Nikki shared a video to Instagram earlier this month, which has since accumulated over 50 million views across different platforms.
In the clip, she talks about a speed bump she spotted while in Perth.
“Australia, you’re so mean for that,” she says in the clip.
Nikki is talking about a unique kind of speed bump, which she says dips into the ground as a driver goes over it.
“If you’re going too fast, this right here will drop down, and then you’ll dip into it,” she explains.
“That’s the meanest type of speed bump.”
It turns out, these are called Actibumps, and are developed by Swedish innovators Edeva.
In Australia, they are only found within Curtin University’s Bentley Campus as part of a trial.
“We were interested in trialling this system as it has been extremely successful in Sweden and offered an innovative approach to creating safer roads for Curtin staff, students and members of the public,” Curtin University’s Chief Operating Officer Ian Callahan said in April 2018, when this trial began.
How it works is that speeding vehicles are detected by the Actibump radar, after which a hatch in the road is activated and sinks a few centimetres, creating an inverted speed bump with a clear reminder to slow down.
It’s designed only to target speeding motorists, allowing vehicles like buses and emergency services to continue without being impacted.
In the first month, Mr Callahan said that the number of speeding motorists decreased from 70 per cent to 30 per cent.
While more of these speed bumps have been added to the university’s campus since then, they’ve yet to break out into the rest of the country – explaining why the majority of us have never seen them before.
They are, however, common in a number of other countries – primarily in Europe.
Commenters weigh in
International commenters were shocked by the speed bump, suggesting that they could cause accidents.
“So in Australia their speed bumps are upside down,” one person joked under the clip.
“Couldn’t these cause accidents?” another asked.
“That would damage your vehicle (kinda like a pothole) doubt that’s a thing,” a third said.
Aussies were also concerned, suggesting that they’re not really in Australia – or that they’re not real at all.
“As an Australian this is the first I’m seeing of this,” said one commenter.
“I’m 60 and Aussie, never seen them ever,” another agreed.
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Originally published as ‘Upside down’ speed bumps baffle Aussies
