In South West Edinburgh we have many wide, fast roads. Often the volume and speed of traffic segregates communities. In Wester Hailes, Craiglockhart, Fairmilehead, Longstone, Currie, Oxgangs and Colinton it can be hard to move around on foot, wheels or public transport.
There are varying views about #lanarkroad, Comiston Roads in particular. So, what can we learn elsewhere to improve not remove temporary measures? And how can we improve other wide, fast roads?
Just today (9 Dec) c£150mn has been confirmed in the Scottish Government's budget for active. Funding will rise to c£320m by 2024/25. So what could we do locally to use this funding and help make our streets more accessible, safer and livable?
All of this is in the context of Scottish Government announcing a 20% traffic reduction by 2030 target and Edinburgh a 30% reduction. What could we do to help meet these challenges, calm the traffic on our streets and make our community safer?
Mobycon is a company that advises cities and communities about how to implement more walkable and liveable cities. It has distilled 40 years of traffic calming experience into the video below - ten minutes that will change your perspective!
Watch from: 26min 40sec to 36min 15 sec
But if you don't have ten mins - we've summarised it below!
Mobycon has three key principles for traffic calming:
Enforcement is futile
Width is everything
Car volume is not a barrier
So here's the summary:
Principle 1. Enforcement is futile.
Police shouldn’t enforce speeding on residential streets. If there is speeding, then the road design is wrong.
Enforcement wastes scarce public resources..
Slowing down to a speed that feels too slow for the road design creates…… frustration! Or worse, folk don’t slow down.
Signage, speed cameras and flashing signs don’t work.
Drivers will slow when:
they feel less safe
are unsure
they think they’ll scrape their cars.
Design for the behaviours you want, not the road you have.
Putting in obstacles makes traffic slow down:
kerb extensions
pushing-in parking
width restrictions
chicanes
trees
modal filters
side road zebras
Principle 2: Width is everything
South West Edinburgh’s wide 1970s roads aren’t a good example. - designed for people driving through, not to, our community.
A wide road will never be traffic calmed. It acts as a gun barrel.
Drivers will slow if they think they’ll scratch their vehicle.
Cities often think paint helps. It can, but it isn’t enough.
Painted buffer zones or hatchings won’t make you feel like you NEED to slow down. In fact, they give confidence to speed.
You don’t need to have filter lanes or overtaking in 20mph or 30mph residential area.
Making the main carriageway the minimum width reduces speed…. significantly.
Minimum width doesn’t affect emergency vehicles or buses.
3. Volume is not a barrier
That's right. Volume is not a barrier.
A key Dutch principle: driving slower goes quicker! It helps flow.
Safe active travel comes first - but you can still optimise flow at junctions.
Here’s a street with c10k vehicles a day:
Safe accessible floating parking
narrow lanes
easier to cross
wide enough for buses & emergency vehicles
due to high volume of cars per/day, segregated cycling required.
The street above has 10k cars/day - with calming. Exactly the same volume as #LanarkRoad and Redford Road in term time. - but they are fast and wide.
So, what can we do to calm traffic and make our communities safer?
Yorumlar