Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.06.2016, Qupperneq 71

L I F E , T R AV E L & E N T E R TA I N M E N T I N I C E L A N D
LAST
WORDS
Issue 7 × 2016
June 3 - June 16
www.grapevine.is
I had never been carsick in
my entire life. I’d roll my
eyes when my sister asked
for carsickness medica-
tion on our family road
trips. I always felt she was
overreacting—until I was
in a car driving through
Reykjavík’s city centre. Be-
fore then, I had never been
carsick, but I’d also never bobbed and heaved
over so many speed bumps.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
At first, I blamed my mother’s driving skills.
It must be her that made me sick to my stom-
ach. My sisters and I joke that she has always
been a “confused driver.” But then it hap-
pened again, this time on the bus. I realised
it had nothing to do with the ability to drive
or not. It was these speed bumps placed every
five metres, making driving downtown akin
to life on the sea. Perhaps this was a city plan-
ning decision to help sailors and fishermen
adjust to life back on land.
• • • • • • • • •
Or perhaps it’s something more sinister?
Could there be a secret society of mechanics
cashing in on the constant damage to brake
pads and front-end suspensions? How often
have you needed to get a wheel alignment? Or
is yet another result of the tourism industry
taking over, slowing down drivers so they can
more easily spot the newest puffin store or
gourmet burger-bistro, upscale, quirky, un-
derstatedly overdecorated gastropub? Pop a
speed bump in front and let’s slap some sun-
glasses on a random animal carcass.
• • •
I am all for safety and if speed bumps pre-
vented people from driving fast then I would
just shut up, but in my experience some peo-
ple just see it as a slight interruption of their
80 km per hour texting session. Other peo-
ple just swerve and dart between the speed
bumps like they were placed there to test the
car’s handling or help the drivers relive a Ma-
rio Kart fantasy. If you’re driving fast and just
brake to get past the speed bump, it’ll cause
nausea more than anything else. I can’t imag-
ine it’s any safer to be driving and puking.
SHARE: gpv.is/backthinks
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