Will this make high-speed bends safer?

Artificial bumps in the middle of high-speed bends are the latest idea for slowing us down.

Critics say they will certainly achieve that, but it could be by chucking us off altogether.

Derbyshire County Council says the “rumble strips” have been fitted as a traffic calming measure on roads across the county where traffic goes too fast and bends are unexpected or hidden.

A spokeswoman said: “They are put in areas where speed has been an issue and bends may not be that apparent before you get to them. They act as a bit of a wake up call.” She added: “We’d encourage people to go slow rather than make it safer for them to go fast.”

Reader Neil Houghton, a 58-year-old table tennis coach from Chesterfield, who sent us the pictures, said: “At night a motorcyclist might not see them and could already be committed to the corner and well keeled over.”

RAC Foundation spokeswoman Sheila Rainger called the strips “short sighted” and said they were not up to standards set out in guidelines from the Institute of Highway Incorporated Engineers.

The guidelines state: “The use of road markings needs to be carefully examined from a motorcyclist-inclusive viewpoint. The position and skid resistance value of edge lining, rumble strips, large arrows and hatched centre line marking can all catch out the unwary motorcyclist, especially in the wet.”

Get tomorrow’s MCN to find out where else in the country you might run into this new traffic calming measure.