mxx1's avatar

Topes

I just read a few articles from outraged gringo (US) tourists regarding Mexican Topes, aka speed humps in Australian English or drempels in Dutch.

Yes, they can be big, shaped to kill your suspension, completely unmarked, completely camouflaged, and/or strangely positioned in the middle of nowhere on a major highway.

And there’s millions of them, all over the country. Even on private driveways – the mind boggles (it’s a form of Stockholm Syndrome).

But after a few days you get the idea and the Topes work. You slow down naturally especially around buildings and keep a close eye out for potential Topes.

Signs of impending doom include the occasional sign (usually right on top of the Tope), road paint, road bumps (cats eyes), and very occasionally, faded paint on the Tope itself.

The signs vary, from ”Reductor” to a pictogram of a Tope, and many other even more obscure Mexinish messages of impending doom.

Usually however there aren’t any indicators at all, apart from the collection of buildings, whose residents are being protected from your stupidity.

Topes usually come in groups of 2 or 3, so once you’ve hit one, you know what’s coming next.

But you get into the vibe of expecting the things, anywhere and anytime. And, geez, isn’t that ABS a good thing?

I like to think that there’s a travelling team of evil specialists that design the Topes. They travel the country advising local road builders on how to wreak maximum pain on your chassis.

Building materials include sand, bitumen, concrete, metal or really anything else at hand. Occasionally Topes are used as conduits for utilities or as drains. Maybe even, crossing tunnels to protect endangered frogs – nuh, just kidding.

I personally prefer the Topes to the over-zealous policing of “speeding” that we have in Australia that utilises hidden speed cameras, heavy fines, and demerit points leading to loss of license.

Give me Topes any day. But that’ll never happen because there’s no money to be made from them.

A final point; Waze is pretty good at pointing out big potholes in Mexico (quite randomly actually because it’s up to users to input them). Why not extend this service to those evil synthetic inverted potholes (aka Topes)?