It is time the City of Windhoek stopped building mountain ranges across our streets.
From residential areas to major routes, the city is no longer installing traffic-calming measures; it is constructing vehicular obstacles that serve no purpose other than to damage small vehicles.
The logic should be simple: look at a standard road kerb. Its height is an absolute physical barrier that no driver – whether in a taxi or a 4×4 – wants to hit at speed.
If a standard kerb is sufficient to keep a car off a sidewalk, then a speed hump modelled after that same height is more than enough to slow down a speeding vehicle.
If the city believes one hump is not enough, the solution is not to build it higher; the solution is smarter spacing.
Two kerb-height humps, separated by roughly 5m, would be far more effective at sustaining a safe speed than a single concrete mountain that forces a complete stop and destroys vehicle suspensions.
Anything higher than a standard kerb profile is excessive.
These peaks act as suspension breakers, forcing residents to pay a hidden tax in ruined shocks and ball joints.
Furthermore, the city is wasting public resources and concrete on over-engineering that disrupts the flow of our city.
The plea to the City of Windhoek is straightforward: We should use the standard road kerb as the maximum height for all speed humps and implement smart spacing by using two low-profile humps in succession rather than one massive obstacle.
It is time to stop wasting concrete on ‘mountains’ when a kerb-height profile is perfectly sufficient.
Windhoek is already surrounded by the Auas Mountains; we do not need the city building new mountain ranges on our tarred roads.
We want safety, but we should not need a mountaineering permit to drive to work.
Concerned resident
