Missouri Bicycle News

Overland Park, KS, has been considering traffic calming measures to increase the bike/ped friendliness of the city. The city has decided to proceed with five pilot projects to assess the effectiveness traffic calming measures. A KCStar story has more details.

Many cities worldwide have used traffic calming to reduce the 85th percentile speed of motor traffic as low as 18 MPH (that means that 85% of drivers are going 18 MPH or slower). Traffic calming is based on the well-known and well-tested idea that drivers do not set their speed by consulting speed limit signs, but rather by observing the driving environment. Is the street wide or narrow? Straight or crooked? Smooth or bumpy? Residential or commercial?

Through careful design and implementation, traffic calming measures can be made to have little or no impact on emergency response times or bus access to neighorhoods. Well designed traffic calming measures increase traffic and pedestrian safety dramatically.

Modern traffic calming measures do not include the notorious "speed bump" of the type often seen in commercial parking lots. They do sometimes use something that is really quite different, and which might be described as a "speed hump"--for example, three inches of rise and fall over a 14-foot distance, designed for use in 25 MPH zones. Speed humps often get a lot of attention, but in fact, good traffic calming employs a variety of design ideas, all of which work together to change the driver's perception of the situation and encourage more careful driving.

Related:

News: Jefferson City makes city center pedestrian-friendly

Tips&Stories: Why didn't the pedestrian cross the road?

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posted by Brent Hugh at 2/23/2003 12:05:51 AM |comment on this article