Status Report

by the TAC/CITE Traffic Calming Project Steering Committee

As reported in the fall 1996 edition of Transportation Talk, CITE and the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) are co-sponsoring a project to develop a Canadian Neighbourhood Traffic Calming Guide. When completed, the guide will define traffic calming, outline a public consultation and implementation process, identify the measures available, and present typical design guidelines. The guide will focus primarily on traffic calming installations for local and collector roads in residential areas. It will also indicate that the geometric design specifications provided are guidelines, not standards, allowing for flexibility in the design of measures to accommodate local conditions.

The project has progressed significantly in the last year. At the time of the fall 1996 article, financing for the project was not resolved, dependent on the outcome of a request by TAC for contributions from member municipalities. Twenty-nine Canadian jurisdictions have since responded to the TAC request. With these contributions, and the $10,000 committed by CITE, total funding stands at $56,600.

With sufficient funding to proceed with a consulting assignment, the Steering Committee prepared a proposal call last fall. From the ten submissions received, the Steering Committee selected the consulting team of Delcan/Urban Systems to carry out the study. The primary objective of their assignment is to develop a list of appropriate measures, examine existing case studies, and propose typical geometric design, signing and marking guidelines.

The consulting team is presently synthesizing available information and developing components of the guide. A draft of the guide is anticipated this fall, in time for TAC Standing Committee meetings in October. However, the consulting team is experiencing difficulty obtaining representative information on all potential traffic calming measures, since there is insufficient quantitative data from existing installations, and experience in Canada is limited primarily to speed humps and traffic circles. Due to these information gaps, a first edition of the guide may be released before all measures are described in detail. Additional data collection will be required to supplement these information sources. Funding, locations and participants for these surveys remain to be determined.

Over the past year, the Steering Committee also continued to cultivate and strengthen relationships with other organizations. From these discussions, the Ontario Traffic Conference, the Western Canada Traffic Association, and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, have expressed interest in participating in the project. These organizations are represented on the Advisory Committee, which was formed to provide advice, input and comment. The Advisory Committee currently has 24 members, representing municipalities and public and private organizations from across the country. The Advisory Committee and others interested in traffic calming have provided input in the last year through a questionnaire survey and traffic calming roundtable discussions at the 1996 and 1997 CITE Conferences. Dialogue with these important references will continue.

With the promising progress made on the project in the past year, completion of the Canadian Neighbourhood Traffic Calming Guide is coming closer. But we still need your help! If you have any information to share, which relates to before and after data, designs, public participation, approaches jurisdictions have used to address liability concerns, and successful and unsuccessful legal challenges, please forward this material to any committee member. We will continue to keep you informed as the project proceeds.

Gene Chartier, P. Eng., Reg. Mun. of Durham, Planning Department Tel: 905- 686-1651, Fax 905-436-6612, E-Mail: genec@inforamp.net

Diane Erickson, P. Eng., City of Scarborough, Planning and Building Department, Tel: 416-396-7369, Fax: 416-396-4265, or

E-Mail: erickson@city.scarborough.on.ca

Mike Skene, A.Sc.T., City of Victoria, Engineering Department Tel: 250-361-0323, Fax 250-385-1128, or

E-Mail mikes@ch.city.victoria.bc.ca