Traffic calming and effective street cross-sections

[ijmorlan]

Adding a bunch of stop signs is hugely inefficient.  So much fuel is wasted in the deceleration/stop/acceleration cycle.  A better solution is to provide a design that allows a car to continue at a constant, lower speed.  Fuel consumption is minimized this way.

Excellent point. That is also a reason why I don’t like speed bumps much — they encourage slowing to almost nothing right at the speed bump, but then the natural tendency is to accelerate rapidly away from them.

I came up with a good rule for one-way streets however: any one-way street with no lane markings should only be one-way for motor vehicles. In other words, counterflow bicycle traffic should be allowed. Of course, if there are lane markings, an explicit counterflow bicycle lane can be provided, but we shouldn’t need to individually debate each specific one-way minor street.