Thread by @SW20Ed

What can we learn from elsewhere about traffic calming the wide roads in SW Edinburgh?

Rapid fire thread🧵

👇

Watch this from @mobycon @modacitylife @lennartnout

40 years of traffic calming experience 🇳🇱 distilled into 10 mins!

10 mins to change your perspective!🤯

🎥 26min 40sec to 36min 15 sec.



@LivingStreetsEd @best_edinburgh @SpokesLothian

@mobycon has three key principles for traffic calming:

1. Enforcement is futile
2. Width is everything
3. Car volume is not a barrier

Context: SW Edinburgh has wide roads with consistently speeding traffic - 35k a week on one road.

https://twitter.com/sw20ed/status/1452656503878561796

There are varying views about #lanarkroad, Comiston Roads in particular.

What could we learn elsewhere from 40 years of experience?

What can apply to our wide streets?

@ColintonCC @BalernoCC @currie_comm @JGBMCC @Longstone_CC @craiglockhartCC @FairmileheadCC @CV_Enterprise

https://twitter.com/david_mccraw/status/1457749715483779079

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.

Signage, speed cameras and flashing signs don’t work.

Slowing down to a speed that feels too slow for the road design creates…… frustration!

Or worse, folk don’t slow down 🚗 💨💨💨💨

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

And SW Edinburgh’s 1970s roads aren’t a good example.

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.

@lennartnout’s exact words!

Cities often think paint helps.

It can, but it isn’t enough.

#paintisnotprotection

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.

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 🚌 & 🚑 🚨
✅due to high volume of 🚗/day, segregated cycling required.

@lennartnout

☝️10k cars/day - with calming.

Exactly the same volume as #LanarkRoad and Redford Road in term time.

But they are wide with speeding traffic. 🤔

Time to move on from the 1970s traffic design and focus on people, not traffic flow?

If you’re interested, here’s some options for the future:

hellosw20.wixsite.com/sw20ed/post/de…

@ashleyannotate @CllrScottArthur @PhilipDoggart @ashleyannotate @NeilCllr @henderson_ricky @DenisDixonSNP @cathyfullerton @davidfkey @CllrAndrewJ @GMacdonaldSNP @joannaccherry @sjenkinson76

Glasgow is doing it.

https://twitter.com/SW20Ed/status/1441667595292250115

And money will be available.

https://twitter.com/ts_director/status/1382285240174051330

Our medics agree it’s good for our health:

https://twitter.com/sw20ed/status/1435490879758819331

So:

How can we live well locally?

/End

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