07-19-2017, 09:45 AM
I agree that narrowing lanes and roads are the best form of traffic calming. As you say, jamincan, speed bumps and humps can have the perverse outcome of encouraging motorists to accelerate and decelerate fast between them. And cars are not parked all of the time, so street parking, though it has plenty of benefits, can not alone be counted on for traffic calming.
And danbrotherston, you're right that there are tonnes of other benefits. Apart from saving the costs of building and maintaining all of that excessive road width, we also reduce impermeable surface area (something municipalities around here are paying property owners to do on private property), and increase green space. Narrow every residential street by three feet, I say, and there would be no impact on traffic flow (just speed), but all of a sudden we would again have space on those streets for a boulevard with street trees. I could go on about all of the follow-on impacts of that (less crime, higher property values, better air quality, better health, happier citizens).
And danbrotherston, you're right that there are tonnes of other benefits. Apart from saving the costs of building and maintaining all of that excessive road width, we also reduce impermeable surface area (something municipalities around here are paying property owners to do on private property), and increase green space. Narrow every residential street by three feet, I say, and there would be no impact on traffic flow (just speed), but all of a sudden we would again have space on those streets for a boulevard with street trees. I could go on about all of the follow-on impacts of that (less crime, higher property values, better air quality, better health, happier citizens).