Road humps that send drivers into bone-rattling orbit could be made obsolete by a new rubber hump that deflates for well-behaved motorists.
 
Trials start in London today on an “intelligent”’ speed hump designed to replace the much-hated, con­crete or asphalt “sleeping policeman”.
 
Motorists acknowledge that traffic-calming ramps have curbed road accidents, but they complain that the humps cause back and neck injuries and damage vehicles. Emergency services in particular complain humps are too disruptive when they are in a hurry or carrying injured passengers. Concrete humps are hated by bus and taxi drivers.
 
“Buses and road humps simply do not go together,” said the Corporation of London, which is road testing the inflatable humps.
 
The Dunlop TranscaIm, developed in Manchester, is an inflatable rubber unit that uses valves to control the escape of air as motorists drive over it.
 
The adjustable valve is triggered at pre-programmed speeds of between 5mph and 30mph, and deflates if the motorist sticks to the local speed limit.
 
Mike Armstead, chairman of Dunlop Transcalm, said: “A driver sticking to, say 20 mph, will be able to drive straight over the hump and will barely know it is there.”
 
The hump remained inflated if a driver exceeded the speed limit. “The concept is based on the premise that responsible drivers should not be punished for travelling within the speed limits,” said Mr Armstead.

Department of Transport guidelines on hump sizes usually mean a vehicle is going too fast if a passenger’s head hits the roof, according to the Corporation of London.
 
The corporation said the inflatable hump had “enormous potential” for smoothing the path for drivers as well as saving lives.
 
“If you do slow down to 15 or 20mph you can still get quite a jolt on a concrete hump and it can be jolly uncomfortable.
 
“This hump means there should be more steady driv­ing, less noise and less pollu­tion from cars accelerating between humps. It will be a great step forward if they work. They will also be cheaper, and less disruptive to install than digging up the road and moulding con­crete,” it added.
 
Medics have called for a ban on concrete humps on bus routes because of a ris­ing number of back injuries among passengers.
 
Last year, a taxi driver in Sheffield won the right to a judicial review of road humps across the country because of claims of “seismic shocks” damaging vehicles, cabling, pipes and roads.
 
The new humps, developed by Dunlop GRG and Pell Frischmann, the highways consultancy, have been installed for road-trials at a busy junction on the City of London street Puddle Dock.