The History and Development of Traffic Calming

In a report for the United Kingdom environmental group, Friends of the Earth, Hass Klau traces the roots of traffic calming back to three sources. In addition to the Dutch “woonerven,” she identifies Buchanan’s “Traffic in Towns,” in which he described the importance of having environmental areas, and pedestrianization as being the major influences. Few would argue that the development of traffic calming has been led by European countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. Although many of the engineering techniques and facilities used in traffic calming have always been a small part of the United States traffic engineers toolkit, they have not been utilized in quite the same way and not to nearly the same extent as in Europe or, more recently, in Japan and Australia.