I’m working with my neighbors to petition the city to add traffic calming measures (e.g. speed bumps, one way roads) to my street. I’m also hoping to turn it into a bit of a research project. Does anyone know of any tools to monitor or even automate data collection of the speeds of cars, number of cars going by, how many actually stop at intersections/stop signs, etc? If we’re successful with the petition, I think it would be nice to be able to present some data from before and after the traffic calming measures are put in place. Thank you in advance!
Speed bumps are a terrible idea. They impede the normal flow of traffic, and slow down the ambulance when seconds count.
you know what else slows down ambulances? Congestion
I live near a school. Cars go way too fast and blast through intersections. Impeding the flow of car traffic is exactly what we need. I’d rather not require the ambulance in the first place.
There are other things besides speed bumps. I specified those because they are worse than useless imho.
Also, there are non-traffic reasons for ambulances. Heart attacks, strokes, mental breakdowns, household injuries, poisonings, etc.
can you prove they are worse than useless? this is very counterintuitive to me. They effectively calm traffic better than zero speed bumps. Don’t strawman me. I know there are better options. I’m not saying to add speed bumps
So we agree. Speed bumps aren’t the best option. That’s all I’m saying.
Well what is the best option to calm traffic and allow emergency service then?
Ever seen one of those speed monitors that tells drivers exactly how fast they are going? Those seem to work well.
I would disagree. As a teenager/young adult I treated them as a high score meter. Many people do the same as there is no physical aspects slowing you down and no consequences for not slowing down. Speed bumps slow people down to protect their suspension/ride quality. Lane narrowing slows people down as they need to be more careful to maintain their lane. Adding narrow bends to the road also slows people down to maintain their lane.
Traffic calming often needs a physical aspect to it to be effective. Relying on just the good will of drivers is rarely effective because emotion and attitude can change drastcially between drivers.
I live in a city and they seem to work there. Also, they can be equipped with cameras to take pictures of offenders.
A street I used to regularly use had its max speed rwduced to 30 km/h and speed bumps installed. This resulted in me, and apparently many others, not using that street anymore. I’d say they worked pretty well. Some might respond, “Well, now there’s one less road in the area being used by cars, increasing congestion elsewhere.” At which point I’d agree with them, and say that’s probably better than having cars routinely driving past a school.
This sounds pretty similar to the situation the OP is describing.
Many speed bump designs can be built to slow down most cars while allowing larger emergency vehicles to clear the bumps. If you ever seen a speed bump thats more like 3 bumps side to side that is why. The wider axle width allows them to miss the bumps while most cars cannot.
I haven’t seen those in my area.
That sounds like incentivising the worst kind of cars - oversized trucks - even more.