![[MM] Muscat Mutterings](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcYv3HG_Duxd4tqtiBqZGJ4_0k36kWKr0L3KasCNj0StaK0_1TvXIBstxtBeoHHFJauQ-WQvhR0xUxDNptbSCoiqd0FEzHDu9J-eu-P1YVcsysxRh586KE1OyTWUZE5mvS2_L-fuKw8j_L/s1600/MM_Logo.png){kind=logo}
Its been a funny old few weeks recently. First there was the shock that I actually had to go back to work after the summer. Followed by relief that Kid #1 was finally back to school, followed, eventually, by the relief that Kid #2 also started her nursery. Man I swear Nurseries in this town were taking the Michael with their start date.... middle of last week?! Some kids had been back at school for a month already! And lets not get me started on the peculiar situation that I find myself in with Kid #2's nursery - I have to pay a registration fee every term? Seems to me a bit silly, if they need to charge more per term then... charge more per term, no?
I digress. Back to my gripe-at-hand. Speed bumps. I've been living here a decade now, and I really should have just gotten over them (pun intended) already. But really. Why are there SO many speed bumps here? Each time I see / go over a speed bump before a stop sign, all I can usually think of is, are people really so bad at driving they have to be forced to stop at a junction?
I must admit I am a bit fascinated by the sub-culture that has spawned around the need to cross speed bumps almost sideways to avoid "rubbing". And I totally get it.. cos they're never regulated in size! Have you seen the mega-bump outside the Opera house? I reckon that one single speed bump has probably netted RO 250,000 in repair work for various workshops around the city since they installed that thing.
Speed limits are posted (most of the time anyway) and speed bumps are also posted (most of the time anyway). However this has happened to me more than a few times when driving in an area I'm not familiar with: Driving along at 50 in a residential zone and then I wince as I just went over a speed hump I didn't see (street lighting here is... not always the most illuminating).
Point is, my poor, much loved, now geriatric, V Dub needs new suspension bits and bobs. Its a bit amusing because twice in the last few days I've been pulled over by people in (surprise surprise) clapped out Lexus' asking me if they can buy my car. No, its not lowered, its just knackered. And no, its not for sale. Yet. I love it to much.
Now yes, I'm moaning about something as pathetic as speed bumps, and really its because I like a good moan (try as I might I can't escape the reality that I was born British after all) and I wanted to write something here that wasn't advertising something. But really - am I the only one who curses every time they go over yet another pointless bloody speed bump? I'm not saying all speed bumps are pointless, and I can certainly see the real-world benefit (people will, it seems, always drive like they are auditioning for the next Fast & the Furious movie) of having speed bumps. But all that means nothing when it means I need to buy a new set of suspension.
Wouldn't it be nice if speed humps were designed to be travelled over at the sign-posted speed limit - so if you're speeding when you go over them, then yes, your suspension gets a paddling. But, if you are obeying the limit, and you go over a speed bump, it should be engineered in a way that it won't punish your suspension.
In Oman, it seems there are two types of Stop Sign: The Stop Sign (which no one obeys) and the Stop Speed Bump (which most people obey, if they see them). Surely if the objective is to get people to slow down, something like this would be more effective?
Perhaps its time for a new car after all. Those RAM 1500's sure do look nice... anyone want to sell me one?
Anyone else have any thoughts on speed bumps?!
le fin.
Speed bumps
![Speed bumps]()
Reviewed by Sythe
on
Monday, September 18, 2017
Rating:
I can't speak for Muscat, but in smaller towns I think they put them in after nasty accidents. As in, "Whoops, guess that corner wasn't safe to take at extreme speeds. Let's put in speed bumps on either side so that no one else attempts to kill himself there." My friends in Sinaw say that speed bumps are the only way to slow guys down. Then there are the massive residential speed bumps that always make me wonder if the municipality chose that location or one home owner just paid someone a bunch of money to come and make him a personal speed bump. Who knows? I definitely hate them, especially the ones that have lost their paint job and sneak up on you even in broad daylight. They do give me the phrase "slower than a Lexus going over a speed bump," which makes me happy to say, especially since my cheapo car glides--no, whumps--over them with ease.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I am more ornery on speed bumps or the super large 4WDs that go over them sideways at a crawl. Cos, like, it really matters to them. I support your decision to buy a Ram; so long as you go over the bumps at high(ish) speed. Otherwise there's no excuse for driving something that puts out so much ick.... there MUST be other ways you can prove you're really Canadian?????
ReplyDeleteKS - yes - I have noticed this too, and the same happens here in the City too. I keep wondering when we're going to start seeing speed bumps on 18th Nov st!
ReplyDeleteUnknown - haha! it's really not like that! Its actually my wife (the real Canadian) that wants the truck - I'd just like to use it on the weekends!
Oooooh me too!!!! I HATE speed bumps in Oman. #They should only induce the traffic to go to the speed limit, not stop it entirely. #2 as you said the sizes of them are not regulated well. #3 people who go over them sideways. Especially anything that is a 4x4. Oh. My. God.
ReplyDeleteI just bought a Toyota Hilux. So now I can go over them at whatever the speed limit is. Khalas. Of course, I had to register it in my husband's name because expats are not allowed to own Toyota pick-ups by law in Oman.... but that's a rant for another day.
LOL @ Unknown: Do not get between a Canadian woman and her love of a decent pick-up.
I live in Azaiba and a private individual put a speed bump in front of his house which annoyed a lot of residents but it became clear as the road became busy and maniacs driving at ridiculous speeds particularly school buses.
ReplyDeleteI too was considering the same when a nursery
school opened opposite my house as again late manic parents dropping off their darlings and again at pickup and no regard of driving safely.
Thankfully it has closed.
You can report speed bumps to Muscat Municipalities if they were placed by individuals. Ask the Ministry to assess the need for a speed bump and then they put in a request for a proper sized one if warranted to the Ministry of Transportation or something. They did so in my neighborhood in Al Hail and removed a bunch of terrible evil speed bumps placed by non-roads people. They also painted all the proper speed bumps when we requested that. It is a lot nicer now.
ReplyDelete...Still waiting on the individual garbages though... Sigh.
Indidual garbages are awful. They are very small they collect in Azaiba around 1,2,3,in the morning with their noisy trucks, reverse siignal and flashing lights. Preferred large communal containers only if your neighbours ,or I in most cases their domestic staff, knew to dispose in the container and not on the road.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: If your family makes more garbage than fits into an individual one than you have a problem and should look at what you are buying, since it is collected daily. My family doesn't produce more than one bag of garbage per every three days so an individual one would suit us perfectly. And we don't really recycle anything, sadly.
ReplyDeleteI, not a maid, or my husband, currently have to drive the garbage to the communal one. Which, most of the neighbors (or their maids) prefer not to use, and instead they dump their garbage on the farm beside us. The communal ones are wretched for anyone who lives near them, so the noise of collection should be shared with the community i figure, and not just one house getting the crap of the smell and the noise. Although perhaps you could ask the Muscat Municipalities for a later collection time (5am at least). As far as I know, you can complain about any noise from earlier than 4am with the police, including workers for the government. They have to get a written permission for the noise otherwise, which you could complain about through the Ministry. Omanis don't even pay for garbage collection so they shouldn't (and me I suppose) shouldn't complain too much. But the smaller garbages are the future. The large ones are just a mess of bad planning.