Sydney Design Festival 2010

Most plastic or bitumen speedbumps are uninspiring road obstacles. the bumpfree speed bump is different. As it’s oxymoronic name suggests, the speedbump is not a bump, unless you are speeding. Killen achieves this by utilising ‘non-Newtonian Thixotropic fluids’- a new technology that reacts on impact. If a car hits the bump at speed, the liquid hardens to a bump, but if a car traverses the ‘bump’ slowly, the liquid remains fluid and the ‘bump’ is almost unnoticeable. Hence the bump operates on the concept of rewarding drivers travelling at safe speeds. Not only does the Bumpfree Speedbump ensure public comfort but it is also relevant to aged care, hospital, storage and freight facilities where a smooth ride is required. Made mostly from recycled rubber, the Bumpfree Speed Bump is designed to perform in the road environment, with a significant product life of five to eight years, compared to the one-year life-span of the speed bumps currently in use. Then a simple replacement of the internal cells that house the non-Newtonian Thixotropic fluids is needed.

However the Bump Free Speed Bump will be in competition with a similar design- the retractable speedbump by Jae-yun Kim and Jong-Su Lee. At high impact the bump is enforced, at at low impact the bump retracts.

By reducing the number of starts and stops and the amount of exhaust waste, both designs have positive effects on pollution and energy consumption- a great ecofriendly design! Keeping in mind manufacturing, product life and cost, it will be interesting to see which of these designs we will see on our next road trip!