Portsmouth has second highest amount of speed bumps in the country

Outside of London the city’s roads have the second highest percentage of speed bumps in the UK.

Recent freedom of information request findings from car manufacturer Citroen revealed that humps can be found on 36.35 miles of Portsmouth's roads, out of a total 284.6 miles.

This accounted for 13 per cent of the city's streets - just behind Norwich where 17 per cent of its roads had bumps.

Portsmouth City Council's safer travel manager, Michelle Love, explained why traffic calming measures were needed. 'We have high levels of speed limit compliance in the 20mph limits but in areas where it can be shown that compliance falls below that level we look to see what traffic calming measures we can put in place to protect road users,' she said.

'We use the speed data that we collect and that Hampshire Constabulary shares with us to work out where traffic calming measure might need to be taken.'

According to data from the Department for Transport, road casualties in Portsmouth reduced in 10 years from 719 in 2008 to 608 in 2018. However, accidents where people were either killed or seriously injured rose slightly from 99 to 115 in the same time.

Hugh Bladon, one of the founding members of the Alliance of British Drivers, believed speed bumps weren't always effective. He said: 'They're a damn nuisance.

'Unless you're driving really slowly they can damage small cars. And then for large cars like 4x4s and range rovers it doesn't make any difference, so they can speed anyway.

'I understand why they are installed and what they are there for but I think there are better ways to prevent speeding. More education and awareness is what's needed.

'I don't think they do make the roads safer. In many ways what they do is distract the attention of the driver.’

Most recently five sets of speed cushions were approved for Locksway Road in Milton.

Council data suggests there are now more than 42,000 individual speed bumps on more than 14,000 roads in the UK.