Comparative study of traffic calming design process

Residents sometimes feel general decline in life due to speedy traffic on neighborhood streets and high traffic volume. Traffic calming is a way to reduce traffic speeds and volume into local residential streets and thereby increase safety for all road users. Japan has introduced some traffic calming devices but there is no design guideline as well as documented methodology for the process. The objective of this research is to perform a comparative study of traffic calming design process, which is expected to facilitate for future implementation in Japan. An internet based questionnaire survey of North America and some European countries was conducted to have knowledge of the traffic calming design process and types of devices currently in use. Interview survey was done to Sacramento (California) and Largo (Maryland) USA. From the research it was found that speed hump is most widely used (53%) device having speed reduction effect of about 8mph.