Effects of traffic calming measures in different urban areas

Despite of the reduction of deaths and serious injuries in roads in Spain during the last years, this reduction has not been so important in urban areas. Consequently, Traffic calming measures (TCM) have been installed in urban areas to improve mainly safety of pedestrians and cyclists. There is a wide range of existing measures, with varying success. Most of the TCMs are focused in speed reduction, as a way of providing a safer atmosphere to urban zones. Different speed reduction percentages are obtained by each TCM according to their geometric features and emplacements in the road. This paper compares some traffic calming measures in the cities of Bilbao, Burgos, Leon and Vitoria (located in the north of Spain) in order to evaluate the repeatability of their efficiency in different emplacements. The TCM selected where some of the most used in this cities. These were raised crosswalks, lane narrowing, radar speed camera signs and radar speed cameras. The speed reduction were compared and analyzed to present some conclusions about the efficiency of each traffic calming measure. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.