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[billw]

Does the surface fluid flows over effect how well it flows? I spent ages building a big flooding trap, with a 4 wide out flow, with all surfaces covered with rough roads to stop growth, then tested it. It took v. long to finish draining.. Any hints on getting good flow speeds? Are stairs more restrictive for flow than ramps for instance?

[Noble Digger]

Horizontal flows of magma are glacially slow because hydrostatic pressure doesn't exist due to its viscosity, so even if the source is above the channel it's flowing into, it will still crawl across like boogers. The best method I've found for speeding magma up is to let the fluids fall an extra z-level (one level deeper than the magma passageway) into a 3x3 hole and pump them forward into the tunnel they are meant to go through. Fluids are pressurized at the exit of a pump and will seek unoccupied areas to splurt out if the pump tunnel is full of magma already. This it does cause several additional non-trivial engineering challenges (such as how to provide power without leaking magma, and how to service the components if something goes wrong) but I find that working with magma and water is the most rewardingly challenging part of Dwarf Fortress.

Good luck!

[existent]

Also, you could dig out the area one Z level above your hallway, build retracting bridges, fill that area with water, and then retract the drawbridges, letting the water/magma fall down.

[Kanddak]

No, terrain doesn't affect flow.
Read the hydrodynamics thread in my sig and stop thinking about DF water as if it was water.
To drain flooding traps rapidly you need to either open a hole in the floor and allow the fluids to fall through, or pump everything out the top. Horizontal drains will always be slow.