Comparative Analysis of Traffic Calming Measures between Developed countries and the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

Traffic is an extremely important organized social and human activity. Life in modern society is unimaginable without traffic. Traffic is the result of the level of development of a country, and vice versa, itself wields pressure on the development of a country’s economy. There is a strong association between traffic and economic development. The development of technology has a profound impact on traffic and the dependency of transport systems on their surroundings in an economic, social, and geographical sense. Traffic is among the central topics in all concepts of sustainable development. Traffic safety in the world and in our country is viewed as a fundamental issue that requires a permanent solution. Each day we pay a very high price for the advantages of the modern and dynamic motorized and non-motorized road transport. In support of the increasing traffic safety, in this paper, we shall analyze the problem of setting up traffic calming measures in the country. In the comparative analysis through this paper, we recognize that each country has a different approach to the assessment of costs and benefits of traffic calming measures and access to the methods of their installation in urban areas. In most developed countries, such as the United States or the UK, the calculations are based on a designed project comprising different variables. Whereas in Macedonia there is not even one project upon which such installation could be performed, thus proved by the surveys conducted in 54 municipalities and their budgets from which funds are allocated. From the results received from the survey on the installation of traffic calming measures in developed countries and in the Republic of Macedonia, measures will be proposed and taken from the experiences on how to improve or increase traffic safety through traffic calming measures.