A study has been conducted by TRL for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions to investigate the effect on injury accident occurrence of the installation of traffic calming schemes in 56 villages. Over 1,400 accidents were analysed based on average Before and After periods for the sample of 7 years and 5 years respectively. The villages are mostly subject to a 30 or 40 miles/h speed limit and feature a variety of schemes ranging from gateway features only to physical restrictions in the village, that have resulted in a range of speed reductions. On the traffic calmed roads through the villages, accidents of all severities and particularly fatal/serious accidents have undergone significant reductions, substantially ahead of national trends. The report presents these aggregate results, and also examines the change in accidents by type of scheme; accident type; traffic flow levels; and changes in traffic speed. (A)
Abstract