Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper Infrastructure for Adaptive Approaches to Community Traffic Calming and Pedestrian Safety ( breakout presentation )

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Background In 2016, the City of Calgary identified concerns around speeding and the safety of people walking in the community of Erin Woods. There was strong support from the community to see these issues addressed quickly. Description of Intervention Working with the community on an accelerated timeline, the City proposed a number of flexible traffic calming measures that could be tweaked over time to address issues in the community around speeding and pedestrian safety. By employing an adaptive, innovative pilot approach, the City was able to move forward quickly. Community members understand that the success of the project will be measured over time and they will be able to provide feedback over the course of the pilot. Bike lanes and newly-developed concrete traffic calming curbs were used to narrow the roadway with medians and curb extensions; the curbs were developed to be visible but with a low profile, and they can be dropped in place quickly and cheaply, and removed at a later time. Outcomes Because the traffic calming curbs cost approximately 1/10th to implement versus traditional curb extensions, the City was able to apply traffic calming throughout the whole community, rather than just focusing on one or two key locations. Early numbers show that people are driving on average three km/hr slower and 17% more drivers are following speed limits. In addition, people driving have gone from yielding to people waiting to cross the street 43% of the time to 90%. The City expects that these changes will lead to significant improvements in safety, collision reduction, and a reduction in the severity of collisions. Lessons Learned The curbs create a safe place for people to wait to cross the street where they’re separated from traffic but also more visible to drivers. They also narrow the roadway so people don’t have as far to cross, while forcing drivers to reduce their speeds at intersections. Implications Adaptive measures to traffic calming enable municipalities to achieve gains in pedestrian safety quickly, with significantly less cost, while enabling the City to test measures in advance of making them permanent.