ARTERIAL SPEED CALMING: MOHAWK ROAD CASE STUDY

Mohawk Road (Hamilton-Wentworth, Ontario, Canada) was an undivided two lane arterial with a 50-km/h speed limit, 85th percentile speeds of up to 70 km/h, and in need of rehabilitation. The adjacent land uses are low-density residential and open space. During the design phase, it was decided that additional lanes were not required, but that one of the design goals should be to effectively reduce travel speeds to 50 km/h without diverting traffic. An innovative design using a series of wide, short landscaped median islands (speed control medians) was employed, which reduced mean speeds and the percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit in the treated section.