Traffic calming

"Slow street" redirects here. For the Slow Streets Program, see Oakland, California § Oakland Slow Streets Program.

Traffic calming uses physical design, as well as traffic signs, road surface markings, road use rule changes, and other traffic engineering measures to improve road safety for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists. It has become a tool used by urban planners and road designers to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers. It aims to encourage safer, more responsible driving and potentially restrict 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, where the focus is often more on facilitating motorized traffic flow. Although they are growing more popular. 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.

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