HB 2160 Questions Diversity of Speedbumps.

This legislative session has a lot of study bills. Here’s another. Filed pre-session at the request of Representative Susan McLain (D – Forest Grove) and Senator Chris Gorsek (D – Gresham), HB 2160 mandates the Oregon Department of Transportation study “speed bumps to examine the possibility of developing uniform standards for speed bump height and speed bump markings.”

It was not until I encountered this bill that I realized the diversity of speedbumps. You’ve got the large ones with a gradual grade and the small abrupt ones. Some are painted yellow, and some are painted white.

This diversity appears to have inspired someone to say: “There ought to be a law!” Yet it’s not obvious to me we have a problem here that requires a state policy imposing uniform standards on such a mundane thing. That’s a theme you will find throughout the stack of introduced bills.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.