Sometimes when streets that were closed are opened there is opposition from some residents because of their concern that they will have high-speed traffic passing their homes. Nowadays there are many very easy solutions to allay their concerns. The science of calming traffic has developed over the past twenty-five years. Aware traffic engineers have available to them a toolbox of more than 25 different traffic calming devices to reduce vehicles speeds, traffic volumes and to manage truck volumes.

These devices include vertical deflection devices such as speed bumps, speed humps, speed tables and intersections tables. These vertical deflection devices can be noisy, awkward for bicyclists and motorcyclists, and will severely restrict emergency vehicle access. Because emergency vehicles have rigid axles they have to slow to a stop to go over each vertical deflection device.

Horizontal deflection devices such as roundabouts, mini-roundabouts, slow points, entry/exit constraints, special medians, driveway links, etc., can be designed to limit vehicle speeds to almost any desired speed. These types of devices do not have the negative impacts of the vertical deflection devices such as noise and inconvenience to the various road users. At these types of devices emergency vehicles only have to slow down, like all other vehicles, to around 10 to 15 miles per hour.

As Facilitated and Recorded by Walkable Communities, Inc.
Website Produced by WebTown Technologies.
E-mail comments to Gregory J. McCormick
       AICP, Director of Community Development.