York is a UK front-runner in introducing traffic calming techniques long practised by other northern European countries. 20 km of residential road have, or soon will be, calmed and the city centre repaving programme now includes extensive speed reducing measures. New residential developments have traffic calming built in through planning briefs. The schemes have been successful at reducing traffic speeds and research has shown them to be popular with residents. Indeed, scheme design has been closely led by residents' priorities. The success of the work done so far has led to a flood of requests for traffic calming. A strategy has been adopted to prioritise these requests based on accident density. The aim in residential areas will be to achieve average speeds below 20 mph. Distributor roads will be calmed so that 30 mph is closer to the maximum not the minimum speed of traffic. The authors will argue that a city-wide approach is needed. As a key element of an Accident Reduction Strategy, traffic calming in the city would bring widespread safety benefits. The UK Government's target of one third reduction in road casualties should be achieved if not surpassed. The environment of the city would be enhanced through associated improvements to street design. Problems and some possible steps toward achieving this vision will be discussed. Funding sources will be considered and the need for greater resources for traffic calming made. Design issues, such as suitable traffic calming measures for emergency vehicles and bus routes will be looked at. Finally, a vision of how a traffic calmed York could look will be illustrated. (A)
Samenvatting