On The Road: Bumps or Humps?

 I don't spend much time on the road anymore, but that doesn't mean my observations  are not roadworthy.  

   I have mixed feelings about traffic circles or rotaries. The ancestor of all being the Frear Park Rotary, a beautiful and uncomplicated structure.  (Once you get past the  arrow on the road directing drivers to enter at  the exit. We're all used to that now, pay it no heed.)  I traveled through that circle daily for a perod of time enroute to the hospital, and, almost every day, passed the city worker who was in charge of the elegant array of plantings and flowers surrounding the fountain there. A few years later he and his wife were murdered in their home by acquaintances who'd found out the couple had won some money, as the police reports indicated. Ever since, the plantings at the circle are still there, but minimal. Maybe the City of Troy  no longer employs a master gardner. 

  Anyway, proceed on 15th, and you encounter 2 double sets of what the posted signs at each call "Speed Humps."  Note that they are not labeled  "Speed Bumps", which is a different entity. I drove over those things 20 years ago during my long siege of treatment at the hospital, then again for 5 separate sessions of physical therapy and rehabilitation, so hundreds of passings.  Another series of sessions has been activated,

I got creative, considering  different approaches to those humps. There are 2 equally spaced humps in the lane you are driving in. I've observed some drivers doing the unthinkable--crossing into the oncoming lane, but that is definitely a violation. Some drivers space their vehicle so as to drive left  front and rear tires over the hump while others drive their right front and rear tires over the hump. I tend to straddle the humps with both front wheels, and then of course the rear wheels. I figured this  puts  less stress on my vehicle.  But that choice is definitely in the minority, so I decided to resolve the issue.

  In my world, that means ChatGPT, so I posed the question as to the proper protocol of driving over Speed Humps. 

Uncharacteristically, Chat appeared hesitant, unable to answer the question I'd asked, but providing many different and applicable ways to traverse different and separate bumps in the road. After I further described those bumps/humps. Chat ruled that this construction, while referred to as 'Speed Humps" is more accurately a 'Speed  Cushion," with its own set of protocol.  Troy must have taken liberties.

Driving further, you encouner the horror where 15th Street crosses Hoosick Street, where tractor trailers and other commercial vehicles speed down the hill to connect with 787, the fastest way out of the city. You know to be on guard, but a further complication is that the 787 escape route often has traffic backed up past the light on 15th. So even when the light is or turns green, you are unable to proceed, just have to wait through the next series of lights. It seems as if  a rotary would help there, but I suppose the whole city would have to be re-sculpted.