Some Examples of Traffic Calming Devices

A traditional and inexpensive way of slowing traffic are speed cushions. These are rubber speed bumps that are bolted to the street. Here they are spaced to let a fire engine through:




Bike Lanes Calm Traffic too:

One idea is to put down a bicycle lane, shared bike lane or both. A narrower car travel lane will slow cars down. Also, just having bicycles in the street will slow cars down. Here are some pictures of "contra flow" (against the traffic bike lanes) that could be paired with a "shared lane marking" (stencil in the street where the cars and bikes share the same lane) going with the direction of traffic

Contra-flow bike lane in Cambridge, MA


A shared lane marking in Toronto Canada



The lane width on Willow Ave is 33'. Reserving 8.5 feet for parking on both sides of the street, there would still be enough room for a 10' travel lane and a 6' bike lane. The 10' travel lane could have a shared lane marking in it. If no bicycles were coming in the "contra flow" bike lane a car would pass a bike going in it's direction by pulling in to the bike lane.

Curb extensions

These can be done with paint and planters (low cost) or by moving the curb physically in to the road. Below are some photos of planters:

This one is too big to see around, but of nice quality:



Here are lower cost planters that could be further defined with creative paint:




Here's a really nicely landscaped curb extension of the expensive kind:


For Intersections there are also many options, some cheap and some expensive. On the cheap side... here is a creative use of paint that really makes a statement:





And more expensive... a roundabout:



These are just a few of the many ways that traffic can be calmed. For more ideas and to give us yours, come to the Willow Avenue Block Party on Sunday October 14, 2007-- from 12 noon to 5PM