My traffic calming site has now been available for several years. It is clear that traffic calming is more than a passing fashion and is now being widely used.
It is less clear, however, which traffic calming measures should be used in any given circumstances; or indeed if any traffic calming is necessary or appropiate. Public officials are often under a great deal of pressure to undertake traffic calming [at sometimes great expense] to address a perceived community problem.
The current state of the art in traffic calming is in need of criteria or guidelines for when traffic calming is most necessary. Speed humps often yield the ‘most bang for the buck’ and are frequently requested by the public. Criteria for when they are appropriate are needed. To further this debate on the need for traffic calming and ,in particular, speed humps, I am attaching a set of criteria which I drafted and have been in use for several years.
I welcome comment.
Peter Partington
May 2007
Traffic Calming Blog 
August 6, 2007 at 12:49 am |
My town refuses to consider any “traffic calming” devices. I presented the case that this particular state is considered to have the “worst drivers in the Nation.” I presented a petition with dozens of residents wanting to have “traffic calming” devices installed. I asked what the town government would do about it.
Their reply – “You will never have traffic humps or bumps in this town….you must hate this town, if you have this kind of complaint about it.”
Are any of you encountering this kind of barrier? What are you doing about it?
That facts are that the community is posted for 20 m.p.h., with plenty of signage. Half the drivers abide by it, and the other half just don’t seem to care. There is unfortunately so much wild “road kill,” and recently, a neighbor while walking her Lhasa Apso on a leash, had the horrid experience of a driver running over and killing her leashed pup! The children ride their bicycles on these narrow lanes, and yet, the police do nothing, complaint after complaint by a few of us who seem to care.
April 13, 2009 at 2:29 am |
We have just come off of a major local campaign o get ome traffic calming on a particular street in our town in MA. Large petitions, near unanimous public support, and yet it all came to nought as the town elected to make changes without the requeted traffic calming.
Not sure why there is such prejudice against these measures in so many US towns