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Traffic calming uses roadway design techniques to slow down automobile traffic and make the road safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Traffic calming creates safer, more attractive streets; promotes pedestrian, bicycle, and transit use; helps reduce the negative effects of cars on the environment; improves the area's quality of life; reduces vehicular speeds; and promotes equity by allowing the street to be used for many different types of people and many different types of uses.
The concept of traffic calming originated in Holland in the 1960s. Residents of the city of Delft, angry about cars speeding down their residential streets, fought back by turning their streets into "living yards" - using streetscaping and landscaping measures that made it difficult for cars to travel down the streets at high-speeds.
In the U.S., Seattle, Washington and Berkeley, California were traffic calming pioneers. Berkeley adopted in 1975 a citywide plan to calm traffic. Seattle was successful in securing early funding for neighborhood street improvements in 1968 in the form of a $12-million bond issue, allowing Seattle to undertake a series of traffic calming studies and demonstrations.
Today many cities and towns in the U.S. have implemented some form of traffic calming and are experimenting and learning what works and does not. Many states and communities are developing or have developed their own guidelines for diagnosing troublesome areas and then implementing the proper traffic calming solution. Traffic calming techniques have become powerful and useful tools in towns throughout the world because they have proven so effective in reducing the number and severity of crashes.
Traffic Calming Techniques
Implementing Traffic Calming in Your Town
Funding for Traffic Calming Projects
Traffic Calming Case Studies
Learn More About Traffic Calming