Traffic Calming Measures as an Instrument for Revitalizing the Urban Environment

Dear Colleagues,

Vehicle speed is one of the most important risk factors for road safety; it affects both the likelihood and severity of accidents. Speeding is one of the main factors that increase the risk of a traffic accident; about 50% of drivers exceed speed limits. Speeding is the biggest road safety problem in many countries and is often responsible for more than one-third of all fatal crashes. In particular, speeding affects the severity of collisions and accidents involving the most vulnerable road users, i.e., pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists. To improve road safety, especially in urban areas, measures must be taken to reduce vehicle speeds. To maintain acceptable speeds in urban areas, physical speed calming measures are needed in the road network. This is especially true for streets whose design invites speeding. Installing traffic calming measures on a street network is a systematically planned way to reduce travel speeds, but also to reduce through traffic on local and residential streets. With the overall goal of improving the living environment, traffic calming is often defined, sometimes implicitly, as an integrated intervention strategy for a street network. It encompasses a number of goals, including street safety, promoting active and collective transportation, and reducing noise and air pollution. Traffic calming strategies generally aim to reduce travel speeds (often to around 30 km/h), especially those of the fastest drivers. Consequently, strategies that are successful at this level can reduce the number and severity of collisions. Traffic calming strategies can increase driver attention by creating more complex environments, thereby reducing the number of collisions.

Traffic calming measures typically include a broader range of measures that complement each other in terms of both speed reduction and environment: 1) narrowing, 2) vertical deflection, 3) horizontal deflection, and 4) restrictions. The technical options are designed to increase the complexity and cognitive load of driving, so that the driver naturally slows down or becomes uncomfortable above certain speeds.

The topics of this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

• Road safety interventions;
• Traffic operations;
• Sustainable mobility;
• Safety of urban mobility;
• Vulnerable users;
• Safety of e-mobility users (e.g., e-bikes and e-scooters);
• Traffic calming measures;
• Smart infrastructures for safety of vulnerable users;
• Analysis in urban areas;
• Intelligent technologies for the road safety;
• Redesign of urban streets and public spaces;
• Human factors and travel behavior;
• Smart infrastructures for safety of vulnerable users;
• Air pollution;
• Traffic noise pollution.

Prof. Dr. Salvatore Leonardi
Dr. Natalia Distefano
Guest Editors

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