I found this great sign about speed bumps in Indonesia on Language Log; apparently they call these "sleeping policemen" and the sign, in Indonesian, says "Beware of sleeping policemen." It says that the British call these speed bumps "road humps" or more colloquially "sleeping policemen." Is that true?
"Speed bumps", "road humps", and "sleeping policemen" are all used. Town planners tend to call them "traffic calming measures" and motorists call them "*%!$£@ things".
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
You've apparently got that right, Bob. I had no idea that of the anger against speed bumps. Where we live they are in out-of-the-way streets and don't really cause that many problems.
Where we live they are in out-of-the-way streets and don't really cause that many problems.
They tend to be in those kinds of streets in the UK as well. You know, those narrow streets lined with houses where people live. Houses that catch fire, houses in which people are take ill - those kinds of places - where emergency vehicles would never need to go at speed, of course.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
Where I live there is NO route from my house to town that does not wreck my suspension. We used to be OK but a few years ago the council ended the year with a financial surplus and decided to spend it on "traffic calming". Now within under one minute drive of my garage there are 15 sets of speed bumps, a dozen or so speed tables (a larger version of the same thing) and approximately twenty single file chicanes including one cunningly sited on a blind bend. I have lived here for almost thirty years and in that time there has never been a single accident that has resulted in injury. Now the kids with mountain bikes use the damned things to play on presenting a constant hazard and that chicane results in daily collisions - so far none resulting in anyting other than damage to vehicles but it's onle a matter of time.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
My, they do seem to cause distress in the UK. I don't know about others in the US, but where we live there just aren't that many so I really don't mind them.
I was intrigued by your use of "chicanes." Of course, I'd heard of "chicanery," but not "chicane." Generally it means to trick by chicanery or deception. But there is another meaning that I'd not heard of, and I am a bridge player: "a bridge hand that is void of trumps."
I'd not heard of that term in Bridge, either. According to this Bridge Glossary it's
quote:
A term from Bridge Whist referring to a hand that is void of trumps. It was scored the same as three honors.
Presumably it's not used nowadays, then.
Many people know of the word chicane from its use in motor racing. That's where I first came across it, before these traffic-calming, motorist-annoying measures came into use.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
We used to play bridge with a delightful couple, and the husband was from England. Whenever he'd pass, he'd say "no bid." Even though he'd lived in the U.S. for over 20 years, there were parts of his English background that he just didn't want to give up!
While I have won a few bridge hands in my day (though Shu probably gets most of the credit!), I obviously didn't learn much of the vernacular. Most of those "c" words on the Bridge Glossary were Greek to me.
We were taught to say 'no bid' always, not 'pass'. Someone might mistake the word for a bid in 'hearts'. I thought that was universal Bridge etiquette.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
