Traffic Calming Devices

People speed on Scott and Savoline, that’s no news to residents living on these streets. What we, residents, cannot figure out is why traffic calming devices were not built on these roads.  Afterall, if you design a wide road like Scott (or Savoline) then (some) people will drive on them like they’re on Autobahn. 

These ideas are strictly for residential streets (like Scott and Savoline).  I don’t know which ones of these I support, but here are some ideas I have seen in cities I’ve lived in (I lived in 8 different cities in a 7 year period after my wife & I first got married):

  • Bends that are safe at speed limit  (image from Seattle)

  • Median with trees. Southern MD and Washington, DC (affluent areas) does this really well. I lived in a community of small townhomes in Gaithersburg, MD and even there the median had three rows of trees. This also prevents people from passing from beyond the solid yellow line.
    This shot is from Maryland (this was done on an old road, so the trees in the median aren’t grown yet):

  • Create a physical barrier after a few parking spots. For Scott & Savoline that means people won’t be able to pass from the right.  Yet another from MD:
     
  • Traffic circle (again, I am told by people that it works. I hated them in DC and Maryland and VA did not have them. Seattle neighbourhoods do have these though and there they were okay. This picture is from Seattle:
     
  • Lonnnngg speed bumps (not conventional ones). Here’s a picture from Bellevue, WA of a speed bump that does nothing at reasonable speed but does hurt at a higher speed:

  • Raised intersection that work as the bullet above. This is a raised intersection from Gaithersburg, MD. It also works fine at normal speed (costs < $15K to build):

  • Finally, do not create long parallel neighbourhood roads that become bypasses for real streets (eg. people taking Scott Blvd to avoid driving on Bronte / Tremaine and Derry). These streets should be for people living in the community, not for people going from one major street to another.

These are some ideas.  Not all will work here. But they should be considered and implemented so builders like Mattamy or Fieldgate builds them when they first construct residential roads (so the Town doesn’t have to build them later). 

8 Responses to “Traffic Calming Devices”

Jennifer Smith on March 10th, 2010 11:15 am:

I remember when I was fighting the Town’s plan to get rid of the 40k school zone on Commercial St., I did a bit of research into traffic calming measures. Commercial isn’t quite as wide as Scott, but it’s still used as a by-pass speedway, and we get more than our share of speeders smashing into cars pulling out of driveways and even into parked cars (the blind hill doesn’t help either).

As I recall from my research, the one traffic calming measure that had been found to be the most effective was the ‘bump-outs’ between street parking areas, as in your third photo.

Has anyone asked Town staff to do a speeding study on Scott or Savoline yet?

[Reply]


My Biggest Pet-peeve in Milton | Zeeshan Hamid on May 20th, 2010 11:31 am:

[...] have been asking for traffic calming devices and signalled crosswalks near schools and parks.  Recently a 7 year old boy was hit by [...]


Urban Streets and Parking Lots | Zeeshan Hamid on June 1st, 2010 11:21 am:

[...] landscaped median.  Another benefit is that it creates a perception of narrowness and acts as traffic calming.  Bike lanes are off road, for cyclists’ [...]


Milton’s Traffic Calming Policy (or lack thereof) | Zeeshan Hamid on June 4th, 2010 1:02 pm:

[...] Smith, ward 2 candidate, just did a great post on her blog on Milton’s missing Traffic Calming policy.  She compared it to Caledon that has a written traffic calming manual (what a [...]


More bike lanes could calm traffic, says councillor | Zeeshan Hamid on June 25th, 2010 11:53 am:

[...] am glad to see that the issue of traffic calming is getting some attention. Unlike some other municipalities, Milton does not have a traffic calming [...]


Young girl injured by speeding car on Yates | Rick Di Lorenzo on July 8th, 2010 2:34 pm:

[...] Zeeshan Hamid – Ward 8 – Traffic Calming Devices Jennifer Smith – Ward 2 – Where is Milton’s Traffic Calming Policy? Mike Cluett – Ward 6 – Talked about Traffic Calming Zones [...]


Gus on July 8th, 2010 4:17 pm:

I sent an email to the town of Milton voicing my concern over speeding and traffic on Scott and Wise Crossing (telling them how difficult it is to cross Scott with all the traffic and cars speeding turning from Derry) and also my concerns about the increase of traffic that we will see after the No Frills and bank are finished and they replied saying that as of now there’re no problems and that they will review it in the future if necessary. That there were tests done and that the traffic doesn’t create any kind of threat. This people don’t care because they don’t live on Scott… From my balcony I see people going over 60 km/h every single day… something needs to be done or maybe they’re waiting for an deadly accident to realize how bad it is…

Gus

[Reply]

Zeeshan Hamid replies

@Gus,
Well, a 7 year old boy was hit on Scott and a little girl was hit by a car on Yates. She broke her arm in two places!

Milton does not have a traffic calming policy. If an intersection has 200 pedestrian traffic then the Town will installed a crosswalk, otherwise there’s no “in between”. I am trying hard to change that (for no other reason than I have three children of my own and I now go to a village square far from my house to avoid crossing Scott with my kids).

Zeeshan Hamid

[Reply]


Leave a Reply

(required)

(required)