Traffic Calming Research Articles

Spatial distribution of roadway environment features related to child pedestrian safety by census tract income in Toronto, Canada

BackgroundInvestments in traffic calming infrastructure and other street design features can enhance pedestrian safety as well as contribute to the ‘walkability’ of neighbourhoods. Pedestrian–motor vehicle collisions (PMVCs) in urban areas,...

Evaluation of the effectiveness of traffic calming measures on vehicle speeds and pedestrian injury severity in Ghana

Objectives: Each year, pedestrian injuries constitute over 40% of all road casualty deaths and up to 60% of all urban road casualty deaths in Ghana. This is as a result of the overwhelming dependence on walking as a mode of transport in an environment where there are high vehicular speeds and inadequate pedestrian facilities. The objectives of this research were to establish the (1) impact of traffic calming measures on vehicle speeds and (2) association between traffic calming measures and pedestrian injury severity in built-up areas in Ghana.Method: Vehicle speeds were unobtrusively measured in 38 selected settlements, including 19 with traffic calming schemes and 19 without. The study design used in this research was a matched case–control. A regression analysis compared case and control casualties using a conditional logistic regression.Results: Generally, the mean vehicle speeds and the proportion of vehicles exceeding the 50 km/h speed limit were significantly lower in settlements that have traffic calming measures compared to towns without any traffic calming measures. Additionally, the proportion of motorists who exceeded the speed limit was 30% or less in settlements that have traffic calming devices and the proportion who exceeded the speed limit was 60% or more in towns without any traffic calming measures. The odds of pedestrian fatality was significantly higher in settlements that have no traffic calming devices compared to those that have (odds ratio [OR] = 1.98; 95% confidence interval, 1.09–4.43). The protective effects of a traffic calming scheme that has a speed table was notably higher than those where there were no speed tables.Conclusion: It was clearly evident that traffic calming devices reduce vehicular speeds and, thus, the incidence and severity of pedestrian injuries in built-up areas in Ghana. However, the fact that they are deployed on arterial roads is increasingly becoming a road safety concern. Given the emerging safety challenges associated with speed calming measures, we recommend that their use be restricted to residential streets but not on arterial roads. Long-term solutions for improving pedestrian safety proposed herein include bypassing settlements along the highways to reduce pedestrians’ exposure to traffic collisions and adopting a modern way of enforcement such as evidence-based laser monitoring in conjunction with a punishment regime that utilizes the demerit points system.

Frequency and Severity of Tree and Other Fixed Object Crashes in Florida, 2006—2013

Roadside trees provide benefits to drivers such as traffic calming, roadway definition, and driver stress reduction. However, trees are also one of several roadway infrastructure elements commonly involved in single-vehicle crashes. In this study, Florida Highway Saftey and Motor Vehicle records were analyzed to: evaluate the relative frequency of tree-related crashes compared to other fixed-object crashes; assess the impact of roadway-, vehicle-, and driver-related factors on tree crash frequency; and compare the severity of tree crashes relative to other single-vehicle crashes. In accessing 3,033,041 crash records from 2006 to 2013 (all complete years), we identified 565,303 single-vehicle accidents (10.5%) and 47,341 tree-related accidents (1.6%). Trees were the fourth most common fixed object hit in urban single-vehicle accidents and the second most common fixed object hit in rural single-vehicle accidents. Driver gender, vehicle type, light conditions, weather conditions, and land use all were correlated with the frequency. Additionally, the injuries associated with tree crashes were more severe than all other single-vehicle crash types except vehicle rollovers.

Traffic Calming as a Comprehensive Solution Improving Traffic Road Safety

The purpose of the article is presentation of various aspects of improvement of traffic calming solutions on traffic safety and the results of implementations of these solutions. The paper is a review of methods and measures on improving traffic safety. The main implementation criterion of traffic calming solutions to improve the state is often urban traffic safety. Traffic calming solutions significantly reduce the number of accident victims (ie. fatalities and serious injuries). The key to achieving these effects is reducing speed, adjusting speed to street character and function, and transforming road and street infrastructure, which forces to drive slower and improves the quality of the urban environment. The implementation of the area conception of traffic calming is often linked to the process of urban transformation and revitalization of the area. Solutions of traffic calming in Poland in all forms including: zones 50, zones 30-40, inhabitant zones (20 km/h) as well as shared spaces improve the traffic safety, reduce the accident risk and simultaneously improve the environmental conditions of residential areas, promote the increasing of cycling, public transport and pedestrian traffic as well the aesthetics of the urban landscape. The best results bring solutions of traffic calming on the implementation on the transit roads passing through the small cities and in urban centres. The effectiveness of solutions of traffic calming in the aspect of safety must be systematically evaluated, due to their relaxation, because drivers get used to it and increase the speed of travel.

Change of Acoustic Climate Following Introduction of Road Narrowing on Divided Street

Challenges involving road safety in town and cities have increased recently, due to development of motoring. Local authorities are facing the dilemma of how to decrease the number of road accidents through the use of various traffic calming devices. Moderate traffic calming devices are used on throughways crossing towns with higher permissible speeds and occasional pedestrian traffic. One of such divided streets in Szczecin was narrowed on both sides by the introduction of traffic separators and U-21 road sign. The authors conducted a series of speed and road noise measurements of the street. Measurements were performed at the same traffic volume levels to assess changed road conditions and probably changed acoustic climate. The paper presents speed measurement results along the applied road narrowing and acoustic maps before and after the application of road narrowing on both sides. The narrowing resulted in non-uniform speed changes along the device. Only motorists in the inside lane, moving along heavy vehicles on the outside lane, reduced their speeds. The presented Leq measurement results of road noise along the road narrowing on both sides, on divided road, showed that the narrowing did not produce rapid changes of road noise levels. Differences of ΔLeq noise levels at successive test sections in the vicinity of the narrowing were 1-2.5 dB(A). Analysis of the applied traffic calming devices of slight lane narrowing (0.5-0.6 m) was conducted. It showed that although speed changes occurred compared to the period before the narrowing had been introduced, the narrowing was not effective and can be used only at preliminary stage, i.e. before more restrictive measures of traffic calming may be introduced. It is crucial, however, that since the narrowing was introduced no road accidents involving pedestrians have been reported so far.

Effects of Perceived Traffic Risks, Noise, and Exhaust Smells on Bicyclist Behaviour: An Economic Evaluation

Active mode (walking, bicycling, and their variants) users are exposed to various negative externalities from motor vehicle traffic, including injury risks, noise, and air pollutants. This directly harms the users of these modes and discourages their use, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of less active travel, more motorized travel, and more harmful effects. These impacts are widely recognized but seldom quantified. This study evaluates these impacts and their consequences by measuring the additional distances that bicyclists travel in order to avoid roads with heavy motor vehicle traffic, based on a sample of German-Austrian bicycle organization members (n = 491), and monetizes the incremental costs. The results indicate that survey respondents cycle an average 6.4% longer distances to avoid traffic impacts, including injury risks, air, and noise pollution. Using standard monetization methods, these detours are estimated to impose private costs of at least €0.24/cycle-km, plus increased external costs when travellers shift from non-motorized to motorized modes. Conventional transport planning tends to overlook these impacts, resulting in overinvestment in roadway expansions and underinvestments in other types of transport improvements, including sidewalks, crosswalks, bikelanes, paths, traffic calming, and speed reductions. These insights should have importance for transport planning and economics.

Analysis of Non-Standardized Traffic Calming Devices under Local Conditions of Pakistan

Analysis of Non-Standardized Traffic Calming Devices under Local Conditions of Pakistan

Children's independent travel to and from primary school: Evidence from a suburban town in Germany

The paper studies the factors that contribute to understand children's independent travel – i.e. not being escorted by an adult – to and from primary school in Germany. Binary logit regression is employed, and the data used are taken from a survey among parents of children in seven schools in a medium-sized suburban town. This is the first paper from Germany that simultaneously looks at the full range of dimensions that may help understand children's independent travel: (1) trip characteristics, (2) child characteristics, (3) the household context, (4) subjective concerns, attitudes and perceptions, (5) the transport environment, (6) the built environment and (7) the social environment. In contrast to the majority of studies in the field, an attempt was made to capture a holistic picture of the transport and land-use environment along the route, while at the same time some key attributes of the route were used as separate variables. Perhaps the most notable contribution to research is the distinct differences that we found between outward and return trips. While the morning trip was characterised by distinct impacts of the built and transport environment, most variables turned out insignificant in the afternoon model. Conversely, more attitudinal dimensions turned out significant in the return trip. Some of our findings are clearly relevant for policy. For instance, traffic calming is associated with higher levels of independent travel, while routes characterised by industry and trade, high-speed roads, and zebra-crossings that need to be crossed are associated with lower levels of independent travel. The effects of perceptions and attitudes we find can be taken as starting points for soft policies such as awareness campaigns or traffic education.

Modeling and Analyzing the Factors Affecting the Mortality of Pedestrians in Urban Accidents

Abstract The nature of urban and rural accidents has been different from each other in some of the factors and even the severity of damage rate, mayhem, and death. In this research, using statistical methods and binary logistic regression model, we have addressed to analyze important parameters such as age, gender, education level, the color of the pedestrian dress, season of accident, time of accident, the speed of the vehicle colliding with pedestrians and road surface conditions at the time of accident on the way of death (at the scene of the incident or in the hospital) pedestrians who have been traumatized. After the creation of the binary logistic regression model, it was determined that only the parameters of speed and the accident time have been significant in the level less than 5%. And other parameters such as age, gender, the season of accident occurrence, the color of the pedestrian dress, road surface conditions and education level had no significant effect in terms of statistical on the incidence of mortality arising from a pedestrian accident with the motor vehicle. The results revealed that by adopting decisions related to the traffic calming, attention to passages lighting and brightness the mortality rate of a pedestrian due to the urban accidents can be reduced.

Application of Automatic Level Crossing Technology in Indonesia

Indonesia has many Level Crossing (LC) all of which are still manual with poor performance. As a result, accidents often occur. This accident was caused by the guards who late lowered the doorstop, carelessness and impatience of road users. Erratic waiting times on LC cause delays and high queues and trigger road users to break through LC doors. In Jakarta, the LC manual causes significant disruption to road users; the delay is 158.46 seconds and the queue is 66.85 m as is the case in Malang, Pasuruan and Surakarta. Many countries have implemented Automatic Level Crossing (ALC) successfully, such as the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia. ALC not only reduces disruption to road users but also minimizes human error (especially for LC manual guards). The most suitable type of ALC for Indonesia is Crossing Barrier with Obstacle Detection (CBOD). This study proves that CBOD is able to reduce disruption to road users to delay to 125,393 seconds and queue to 60,778 m. On the other hand, to control the behavior of road users needs to be supported by the installation of traffic calming; noise band, traffic channel and countdown timer. Analysis of B / C Ratio in CBOD installations including traffic calming produces tilapia 1.24, which is feasible to apply.

Children's mode choice for trips to primary school: a case study in German suburbia

Research on children's school travel behaviour has grown tremendously in the past decade, although Germany has remained amazingly silent. At the same time the interplay between various factors that affect child travel is not yet fully understood. The paper reports results from a survey in the medium-sized suburban town of Lünen, Germany. Mode choice of children to and from primary school is studied using multinomial logistic regression. The models include a large variety of variables that capture child and household sociodemographics, parents' mode use, trip distance, parental concerns, attitudes and perceptions, and the built and transport environment. Some of our results confirm previous studies (e.g. on the role of age, gender, and trip distance), while others differ. For instance, we found no effects of household socioeconomic status or of the social environment on mode choice. Concerning the role of the transport environment, we want to highlight two findings. Firstly, narrow pavements along the route increase the odds of being driven rather than walking. Secondly, traffic calming is associated with higher odds of cycling against walking. Parental attitudes and concerns also play a significant role in child mode choice.

Traffic calming and neighborhood livability: Evidence from housing prices in Portland

This paper examines the impact of traffic calming on the livability of urban residential streets. Using geo-referenced data on the installation of 1187 calming devices in Portland (OR), I test whether the interventions locally affect housing prices during succeeding years. I provide reduced-form evidence that city dwellers pay significant premiums to limit their exposure to motor vehicles, but obtain mixed results regarding the overall price impacts of calming devices. My estimates suggest that only the most effective traffic calming measures have a detectable impact on housing prices. The implied traffic flow elasticity is −0.07: projects decreasing traffic by 16% raise home values on treated streets by 1%.

Integrating police reports with geographic information system resources for uncovering patterns of pedestrian crashes in Denmark

Promoting walking goes a long way in contributing to the sustainability and health of future cities and regions, and improving pedestrian safety is essential for building more sustainable and healthier communities. As the problem is multifaceted in nature, this study looks at patterns of pedestrian crashes from a perspective that goes beyond the traditional investigation of pedestrian characteristics and behaviour by analysing the contribution of built environment, land use, and traffic conditions. Moreover, this study goes beyond the traditional analysis of traditional police reports by integrating them with rich geographic information system resources. This study analysed a sample of 7469 crashes between a pedestrian and another road user that occurred in Denmark between 2006 and 2015. The crash locations were geocoded and matched to a detailed traffic network, a transport planning model, and several resources detailing building and land use composition. Latent class analysis uncovered patterns of pedestrian crashes for both the fully identified records and the substantial amount of hit-and-run records. Findings from this study reveal a major red thread in the lack of hazard awareness for both pedestrians and road users and suggest solutions from both the behavioural and the infrastructure perspectives. Major needs are (i) educating pedestrians about the risks related to drinking and then walking along major roads in the darkness, (ii) making crossings for pedestrians and approaches for road users easier to understand and to access in order to reduce unnecessary conflicts, and (iii) designing traffic calming solutions around major shopping and leisure locations in dense city centres.

The Hierarchical Planning of Traffic Calming in Opening Residential Areas

Opinions on Further Strengthening the urban planning and construction management, which states that in principle, construction of residential areas are no longer closed. And residential areas have been built should be gradually opened to public, in order to resolve road network layout problems and promote economical use of land. On the one hand the opening residential areas maybe relieve the traffic press, on the other hand a large number of though traffic into the residential areas will reduce the quality of life for residents of concerns about safety, noise and pollution. How to ease the contradiction between the two is a serious problem. Traffic calming which can alleviate the adverse effects of motor vehicle use, should be used in opening residential areas to reduce occurrence of excessive speeding and through traffic. Many countries have sophisticated and organized methods to carry out the measures, and have achieved some results. While our country does not have well defined and systematic study process to facilitate traffic calming measures, and the “people first” concept of traffic calming is not popular. After illustrating the advantages of traffic calming device in other countries, the objective of this research is to investigate and analyse the effects of some measures which used in opening residential areas, the aim is to establish traffic calming device selection process guiding principles to be introduced in China.

Traffic Calming and Environmental Justice: New York City’s Neighborhood Slow Zones

This paper examines New York City’s Neighborhood Slow Zones (NSZ) program in terms of environmental justice. The paper uses both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative analyses show that the areas where the zones are implemented are well represented in regarding environmental justice (low-income and minority) populations, and that risk exposure to traffic injury and traffic casualty counts are similar in NSZ and non-NSZ areas. The qualitative analysis shows that the program was structured in a way that included the participation of environmental justice communities and led to the siting of zones in such neighborhoods. These findings suggest that the NSZ program can address environmental justice’s goals of distributing environmental risk more equitably and including low-income and minority communities in planning processes.

Assessing Traffic Calming Measures for Safe and Accessible Emergency Routes in Norrkoping City in Sweden

Assessing Traffic Calming Measures for Safe and Accessible Emergency Routes in Norrkoping City in Sweden

Design and Evaluation of K-Pass: A Bicycle-Friendly Modification of Speed Bumps

Traffic safety is a major concern across the world. Since speed is a major cause of traffic crashes, various traffic calming measures are used to enhance the safety of the road users in urban areas. Speed humps and bumps are the most widely used traffic calming devices. As a considerable number of bicyclists use the road along with motorized users, it is important to consider them while deploying any traffic calming devices. Studies have shown that bicyclists experience significantly larger discomfort as compared to motorized vehicles while passing over speed humps. In this study, a modification has been proposed to enhance riding comfort of bicyclists without compromising the traffic calming attribute of a speed bump. This modification is named “K-pass.” Analysis of data collected before and after the modification justifies the effectiveness in reducing the discomfort of bicyclists. Over a period of eight months, 70% of the bicyclists chose to use K-pass. Data also revealed that a high proportion of motorized two-wheeler users also used the K-pass at reduced speeds. It is expected that the K-pass will be a useful modification to the existing speed humps and speed bumps in areas where bicycle usage is expected.

The Potential of Metering Roundabouts: Influence in Transportation Externalities

Roundabouts are increasingly being used on busy arterial streets for traffic calming purposes. However, if one roundabout leg is near a distribution hub, for example, parking areas of shopping centers, the entry traffic volumes will be particularly high in peak hours. This paper investigated a partial-metering-based strategy to reduce traffic-related costs in a corridor. Specifically, the resulting traffic performance, energy, environmental, and exposure impacts associated with access roundabouts were studied in an urban commercial area, namely: (a) to characterize corridor operations in terms of link-specific travel time, fuel consumption, carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions, and noise costs; (b) to propose an optimization model to minimize these outputs; and (c) to demonstrate the model applicability under different traffic demand and directional splits combinations. Traffic, noise, and vehicle dynamics data were collected from a corridor with roundabouts and signalized intersections near a commercial area of Guimarães, Portugal. Microscopic traffic and emission modeling platforms were used to model traffic operations and estimate pollutant emissions, respectively. Traffic noise was estimated with a semi-dynamical model. Link-based cost functions were developed based on the integrated modeling structure. Lastly, a sequential quadratic programming-type approach was applied to find optimal timing settings. The benefit of the partial-metering system, in terms of costs, could be up to 13% with observed traffic volumes. The efficiency of the proposed system increased as entering traffic at the metered approaches increased (~7% less costs). The findings enable quantification of metering benefits near shopping areas.

Pedestrian traffic safety and outdoor active play among 10-13 year olds living in a mid-sized city.

This cross-sectional study examined the independent and interactive associations between objective and perceived measures of neighborhood pedestrian traffic safety and outdoor active play. A total of 458 children aged 10–13 years from Kingston, Canada were studied in 2015–2016. Outdoor active play was measured over 7 days using data from activity logs, accelerometers, and Global Positioning System loggers. Geographic Information System data were collected within 1 km of participants' homes and used to create traffic volume, traffic calming, traffic speed, and pedestrian infrastructure indexes. Parents' perceptions of these pedestrian safety domains were obtained by questionnaire. Most of the pedestrian safety measures were not significantly associated with outdoor active play, and there were no interactions between the objective and perceived measures (p > 0.3). The significant relationships are listed here. Children whose parents perceived moderate or high traffic speeds in their neighborhood had outdoor active play values that were 0.35 (SE = 0.10, p = 0.021) and 0.20 (SE = 0.15, p = 0.048) SD units higher, respectively, then children whose parents perceived low traffic speed. By comparison to children from neighborhoods in the lowest tertile, children from the highest traffic volume tertile had higher outdoor active play levels (0.26, SE = 0.12, p = 0.029), while children from neighborhoods in the moderate traffic calming tertile (−0.28, SE = 0.11, p = 0.008) and the moderate pedestrian infrastructure tertile (−0.25, SE = 0.11, p = 0.023) had lower outdoor active play levels.

How to improve the comfort of Kesawan Heritage Corridor, Medan City

Comfort is indispensable to make a friendly neighborhood or city. Especially the comfort of the infrastructure in the corridor. People must be able to feel comfortable to act rationally in their physical environment. Existing infrastructure must able to support Kesawan as a historic district. Kesawan is an area that is filled with so many unique buildings. Without comfort, how good the existing buildings’ architecture cannot be enjoyed. It will also affect the identity of a region or city. The aim of this research is to re-design the public facilities from Kesawan corridor’s comfort aspect: orientation, traffic calming, vegetation, signage, public facilities (toilet, seating place, bus station, bins), information center, parking and pedestrian path. It will translate the design concept in the form of design criteria. This research uses qualitative methods. Some facilities in this corridor are unsuitable even some of them are not available. So, we need some improvements and additions to the existing facilities. It is expected that by upgrading the existing facilities, visitors who come to Kesawan will be able to enjoy more and able to make Medan city more friendly.