Traffic Calming and Pedestrian Safety

In South Africa approximately 35% of all road fatalities are pedestrian fatalities. We have shared information on the Arrive Alive road safety website with our pedestrians on how to avoid becoming road crash fatalities. These include the need for increased visibility around traffic, the need for alertness etc.

We have also shared safety suggestions with drivers when driving in the vicinity of pedestrians. When these drivers however do not reduce their speeds as advised it is often up to the road engineers to reduce the risks of speeding vehicles through road design and traffic calming.

In this section we would like to pay closer attention to traffic calming - sometimes referred to as speed calming, and discuss how these measures can help to avoid road fatalities and injuries. We will also refer to other sections of content on the Arrive Alive website and share practical examples on how these measures have been implemented.

What causes pedestrians to be unsafe?

Vehicle / Pedestrian Conflict
Pedestrians sharing roadway with vehicles
At grade facilities (grade separated ideal)
At grade : angle at which pedestrians use road (Parallel, cross skew, at right angles)
Pedestrian behaviour is often unpredictable

Who are the defined Pedestrian Groups?

Children
Adults
Disabled
Aged

Important Concepts in Pedestrian Safety

We would like to take a closer look at some concepts in pedestrian safety to analyse how traffic calming can impact on the behaviour of both pedestrians and motorists to ultimately enhance safety and reduce road deaths.

Concept	Responsible entity
Engineering	Roads authority
Education	Teachers and parents
Enforcement	Metropolitan Police

Engineering Concepts

Separation

Space (separate walkways and roads for vehicular traffic, grade separation) (pedestrian bridge or underpass)

Time (allow pedestrians to take gaps, traffic signals)

Warning

Signs and marks

Mitigation

Reducing speeds (vast majority of cases)

Reducing volumes

Engineering Applications

It is the road engineers who have the technical knowledge and skills required for the implementation and construction of traffic calming measured. Their applications can be used at:

Junctions (Intersections)
Midblock
Public Transport Facilities
Schools / Other high pedestrian volume areas

Education Applications

Even though we might design and implement the best possible measures for traffic calming, this should not be seen in isolation of the important educational component of a traffic calming strategy.

Education:

Essential with any engineering intervention
Focus on different age groups
Children 6 – 12 years
Children over 12 years
Adults
Use text road signs to educate
“Responsible Pedestrian” licence?

Enforcement Applications

Once we have designed, constructed and implemented measures for traffic calming - and educated road users on how to interact with other road users at these road designs, we still need to enforce the Rules of the Road. Traffic Enforcement still remains one of the best measures to ensure obedience and increased safety!

Enforcement:

Sometimes only solution
Not aggressively enough at present
Pilot projects where pedestrians cross highways
Training of community traffic wardens

Engineering Toolbox

What are the tools available to the road engineer to create safety through traffic calming?

Some of the following may be used:

Painted or raised and painted edestrian crossings
Speed humps
Mini-circles
Sidewalks
Road signs
Taxi lay-byes
Median islands
Road marks
Illumination
Barriers and kerbs
Loading facilities at schools
Traffic signals
Scholar patrols
COSBI Strips
Rumble strips (mainly in rural areas)

Before implementing Traffic calming

What is required before implementing any measured for traffic calming?

Have a traffic calming policy in place (ratified by Council)
Have a Traffic calming Master Plan for whole or part of the town or city
Have an approved evaluation process (should be part of policy)
Have a public awareness / education process in place
There should be an awareness amongst officials that a policy and technical criteria exist
Have a recording and feedback system in place

Traffic Calming Master Plan

The Basics of Developing a Traffic Calming Master Plan for part or all of the area for which the roads authority is responsible:

Identify road safety problems before they occur
Study the area in terms of:
Road hierarchy
Traffic Volumes (vehicles and pedestrians)
Determine number of residential units
Land use (Schools, commercial developments, old age home etc)
Road geometry (vertical and horizontal alignments, cross sections etc)

Future planning

Evaluation Process

National Guidelines developed by CSIR are most commonly used

There are variations to this (CTMM uses an adapted variation of CSIR process

Centurion also developed its own method

Other authorities also developed their own processes

Traffic Calming Techniques

There is a wide range of traffic calming techniques. We would like to consider some of these and share examples of how they are implemented on our roads.

There are basically six different methods used to calm traffic (both volumes and speeds)
Vertical displacement (speed humps)
Horizontal displacement (mini-circles)
Lane width reduction (eg choker)
Auditory methods (rumble strips)
Visual methods (Cosbi strips)
Road closure

Examples of Traffic Calming

How do these traffic calming measures look like in the design phase? We would like to share a few examples of layouts of traffic calming measures: