What is Traffic Calming?

The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), the international association that represents traffic engineers, transportation planners and similar professionals who plan and design roads and neighborhoods, has defined traffic calming as “changes in street alignment, installation of barriers, and other physical measures to reduce traffic speeds and/or cut-through volumes, in the interest of street safety, livability, and other public purposes.”

Traffic calming is the installation of physical measures, such as speed cushions or speed humps, to slow the speed and control the volume of traffic in order to improve the safety of local streets. Already used effectively in Europe for decades, traffic calming is now being instituted in communities throughout North America. It is the most effective way to reduce speeding on residential streets, avoid traffic accidents and prevent fatalities. Traffic calming programs begin either with the vision of progressive municipalities, with the knowledge of traffic engineers or public works officials, or at the request of concerned residents.

The purpose of traffic calming is to make neighborhoods safer, more livable, and more enjoyable. Reducing the speed and volume of traffic to acceptable levels helps to achieve these goals. Traffic calming reduces accidents, collisions, noise, vibration, pollution, and crime.

Over decades of use, traffic calming solutions have proven to reduce both the number and severity of pedestrian crashes. Traffic calming measures, such as speed tables or speed bumps, compel drivers to slow down to speeds at which they are better able to react to unexpected situations such as a child darting across the street. Even if a crash does occur, lower speed crashes are less likely to kill or seriously injure. Children are less likely to be careful than adults are and are thus more vulnerable to injuries from speeding cars. Traffic calming measures have been called “the only antidote for the malady of child pedestrian accidents.” (Transportation Alternatives Magazine)

In recent years traffic calming has become more popular in North America. Rubber traffic calming solutions have grown in popularity as a more visible, easier to transport, consistently shaped, and often cost-effective alternative to asphalt installations. Methods such as street narrowing (link to curb extensions page) and traffic circles (link to traffic circles page) have become popular as well as aesthetically pleasing ways to slow vehicles. For cities that don’t want to slow cars with physical deterrents, radar speed signs (link this to radar speed sign page) are often used to make drivers more aware of their speeds to encourage safer driving behavior.

To learn more about traffic calming, visit the Wikipedia Traffic Calming page or the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)'s traffic calming page. You can also learn more about specific calming measures at the Federal Highway Administration's traffic calming section.