Traffic calming

"Slow street" redirects here. For the Slow Streets Program, see Oakland, California § Oakland Slow Streets Program.
Two traffic calming measures on a road in England: speed cushions (the two reddish pads in the road) and a curb extension (marked by the black posts and white stripes)
Signing indicating that a motorist is approaching traffic calming devices

Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, car drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. It has become a tool to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers.[1] It aims to encourage safer, more responsible driving and potentially reduce traffic flow. Urban planners and traffic engineers have many strategies for traffic calming, including narrowed roads and speed humps. Such measures are common in Australia and Europe (especially Northern Europe), but less so in North America. Traffic calming is a calque (literal translation) of the German word Verkehrsberuhigung – the term's first published use in English was in 1985 by Carmen Hass-Klau.[2]

  1. ^ Caves, R. W. (2004). Encyclopedia of the City. Routledge. p. 674. ISBN 978-0415862875.
  2. ^ Hass-Klau, Carmen (February 1985). "Trying to calm the motor car". Town and Country Planning: 51–53.