Bad design: A frustrated driver vented their anger by vandalising the speed humps in Bridgewater Way. Picture: Rob Carew
Start again: Workers remove the old speed humps and begin the process of installing new ones. Picture: Wayne Hawkins
KNOX Council has been forced to take action over dangerous speed humps in Rowville after a torrent of complaints and abuse on its Facebook page.
Rubber speed humps along Bridgewater Way were replaced last Monday week with new ones — and residents quickly took to Facebook to describe them as "gutters", "stupid cushions" and "harsh".
By Friday, a second round of works had begun to lower the overall height of the humps, as well as increasing the length of the ramps leading to them.
Complaints began flooding in on the council's Facebook page at the start of the week and snowballed.
A source told the Weekly there had also been an influx of complaints from bus drivers who said the humps were damaging the bus tyres and the front of the vehicles.
Many Facebook posters complained their cars had been damaged going over the humps, while others said vehicles virtually had to stop to go over them.
Melanie Cromie has lived in Bridgewater Way for five years with her young family and watched the drama unfold last week.
She said hoons with lowered cars regularly used the original speed humps for burnouts. "Personally, I loved it [the humps] at first. They were slowing down the idiots."
But when Mrs Cromie went over the speed humps for the first time she said she felt a "bit scared". "The front of my car came crashing down. It was too high — cars have to stop to go over them and it can cause accidents," she said.
There were also complaints online about the lack of markings on the bumps making them invisible at night.
The council's chief executive Graeme Emonson said permanent linemarking occurred a week after asphalt had been laid.
Other complainants expressed their frustration that more planning and thought had not been put into the new speed stoppers before money was spent. Several claimed it was a waste of ratepayers' money and complained about their rates increasing.
"They need a happy medium. It should have been done properly in the first place," Mrs Cromie said.
Mr Emonson said the new humps should soften the impact that drivers had been reporting.
LET'S FACE IT
KNOX Council's Facebook page has never seen as much activity as it did last week.
Hundreds of people took to the social networking site to vent their anger by either writing a comment about the Rowville speed humps or liking other comments.
In contrast, there were just 13 contacts logged via phone, email or in person.
One Facebook post regarding the new speed humps received almost 200 likes before mysteriously disappearing last Wednesday The council said the post was not deleted — it appeared to be a Facebook glitch — and made sure users could see a link to that thread.
The council's chief executive officer, Graeme Emonson, said "we definitely don't delete threads". Only individual comments that were offensive, like language, were deleted.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Is social media the new way to get things done? Noticed any other trouble spots on Knox roads? Post a comment below.
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