A PLACE OF SENSE

One of the most important studies regarding urban design and transportation has been released by the Connecticut DOT.  This study validates the “self-explaining” roads used in the Netherlands as well as some other places, even here in the US.

The conclusion is that proper street design and urban planning can make streets safer by helping drivers slow down in densely populated areas.  The Infrastructurist has a great writeup on the story and they have put a copy of the file online for us.

From the “Designing Roads that Guide Drivers to Choose Safer Speeds” abstract:

The factors associated with higher average running speeds are wide shoulders, large building setbacks and a residential location. The factors associated with lower average running speeds are on-street parking, sidewalks and a downtown or commercial location. These findings suggest that drivers slow down where the road feels “hemmed-in” or there is noticeable street activity, and they speed up where the road feels “wide open” or street activity is less noticeable. This finding is not surprising, but these relationships are quite strong in the observed data, and it is a useful result to isolate this short list of factors that are significantly correlated with actual vehicle running speeds.

These findings demonstrate that through careful, intentional selection of roadway and roadside design elements, it is possible to influence the running speed of traffic on a road. It appears that drivers indeed take cues from elements of the roadway and roadside environment to decide how fast to drive and these cues are independent of the posted speed limit and other considerations that might be important to the community for reducing speeds. So the good news is that it is possible to influence drivers’ choice of speed through design of roadway and roadside elements; but the bad news is that many existing roads cue drivers to travel much faster than the posted speed limit and the community would like.

Just to be clear, this is not about artificially restricting traffic flow or abolishing vehicles from urban areas.  This is about minor changes in design that radically improve pedestrian and driver safety.  Apparently there is such a thing as a free lunch, and its called good design.