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Traffic Calming Measures as an Aid to Urban Regeneration
In 1988 Tim Pharoah undertook research into the origins and development of traffic calming measures in the Netherlands and Germany. As part of this work he made a study tour funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The research report can be found on the right.
The research covered the principles behind traffic calming in the Netherlands and Germany, how schemes were developed, built, paid for and maintained, and the involvement of the public in the preparation. The evaluation of the effectiveness of schemes is also reported, under the following headings:
a. Speed
b. Volumes of traffic
c. Accidents
d. Noise
e. Air pollution
f. Parking
g. Pedestrian and street activity
h. Economic and other effects
i. Safety
j. Visual appearance and ecology
Interesting aspects emerged, such as how the Woonerf was partly enabled by the fact that streets in old Dutch cities have to be frequently rebuilt anyway, because they are laid on peat. In village traffic calming, farmers object to road narrowings because of the need to get large farm machinery through village streets; and in Germany they object to street trees because they are responsible for sweeping leaves in the autumn.
One of the aspects that emerges strongly is the importance of multi-disciplinary teams, in order to take traffic calming away from just an engineering measure, to a component of street improvement, place making and urban regeneration.
It was also found that successful schemes happened when the different levels of government (local, regional, national) collaborated.
| Report Title | Traffic Calming Measures as an Aid to Urban Regeneration |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Tim Pharoah |
| Company | South Bank Polytechnic |
| Client | Nuffield Foundation |
| Date | 1989 |
