Hello, 

Apparently “speed cushions” are installed by many communities with public safety vehicles and public safety in mind. (I do not know if this is the same as a speed table.) These slow down vehicles by as long as 1 min 10 seconds per cushion/bump. As for pubic safety, say re: fires, a fire can double in size in 30 seconds. Safety concerns matter. 

There is a stretch of busy residential road in Belmont (Winter St.) which intersects with Concord Ave. Several (4-6) wide speed tables have been installed along a particular stretch of Winter St near the intersection with Concord Ave. These seem effective (from a driver’s point of view.) I am not sure what sound or other impacts the residents who live there, whose homes are very close to the road, are getting used to. Based on my user experience, more than one “speed table” may be necessary to be most effective at getting drivers to slow down.

Kathleen Lomatoski 

On Dec 14, 2025, at 7:21 PM, Rich Rosenbaum <[email protected]> wrote:



3 minutes?

A 1995 study by the Portland, Oregon Bureau of Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Services tested the response times for 6 different sized fire vehicles at a various response speeds vs. common traffic calming devices (https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/City-of-Portland-1996.pdf ). The study produced the following range of delays:

  • 14-foot speed bumps: 1.0 to 9.4 seconds of delay per bump
  • 22-foot speed bumps: 0.0 to 9.2 seconds of delay per bump
Other sources cite an average of 3 seconds.



On Sun, Dec 14, 2025 at 12:44 PM Nick Gardner <[email protected]> wrote:
A speed bump adding 3 minutes does not make sense. Fire trucks do not accelerate that slowly, and it's not like they can safely go 60 on that road anyways. Plus, we need to balance emergency response time with making sure pedestrians don't get hurt. Those two things are often in opposition to each other. 

-Nick
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