This paper discusses the findings from over a hundred structured household interviews. The following effects frequently influenced the residents' preferences for traffic calming: reductions in traffic speeds; reductions in bus services; the irritation of driving over the measures; adverse safety and congestion effects associated with pinch points; visual appearance; and cost. Apart from speed reduction, public consultation materials do not normally include these effects, and the author believes that including them would increase residents' satisfaction with public consultation procedures. A multi-criteria decision model provides a theoretical relationship between residents' overall preferences and their importance scores for these effects. This model adds support to the findings of the interview procedures, and confirms that although respondents indicated that many traffic calming effects were important, only a subset of these actually influenced their choices. Many residents could not give instant preferences for the traffic calming options, but they did acquire the ability to discriminate between the options as the interview progressed. The author re-interviewed a sample of respondents after twelve months and found that their importance scores and final preference rankings had remained stable. Hence, the multi-procedures helped residents to develop firm and distinct preferences.
Abstract