Speed Bumps Are Not All Bad

I have generally been pretty skeptical of speed bumps (also known as "speed humps"); they can be harmful to cars, but don't do as much to calm traffic as some other techniques.

But I became more appreciative of speed humps yesterday.  For reasons not of much interest to the readership of this blog, I had to walk on a residential street that had no sidewalks (and no lawn to walk on, as is often the case in Atlanta).  In the ordinary case of events, such streets are very dangerous, because if you walk on a street with 40 mph traffic, you are not likely to survive a collision.

However, the speed bumps made the cars on this street go less rapidly; as a result, walking on the street was only moderately life-threatening.  So my position has changed from "Speed Bumps Are Bad" to "Speed Bumps Are One Way to Make Streets Without Sidewalks Less Bsd."