The impacts of neighbourhood traffic management
A major traffic-related problem faced by residents is speeding, which not only causes safety concerns, but also noise issues. Traffic calming is a much favoured traffic management tool employed by road controlling authorities to primarily reduce vehicle speed, hence improve community liveabili...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2536/1/24p%20BASIL%20DAVID%20DANIEL.pdf |
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| Summary: | A major traffic-related problem faced by residents is speeding, which not only
causes safety concerns, but also noise issues. Traffic calming is a much
favoured traffic management tool employed by road controlling authorities to
primarily reduce vehicle speed, hence improve community liveability.
This research aimed to investigate the impacts of traffic calming on speed,
safety and traffic noise. The objectives included developing models for the
prediction of speed and noise on traffic-calmed streets, and providing
guidance for good design practices.
Speeds of individual vehicles as they approached and crossed traffic calming
devices were observed in order to identify the behaviour of individual drivers.
Results indicated that the speed hump and the raised angled slow point
produced the largest speed reductions and least variation in speeds, while
mid-block narrowings had no significant speed changes. Inter-device speed
was found to be mainly controlled by the separation between devices.
85th percentile speeds at distances from calming devices were 40 – 45 km/h
for vertical deflections and 45 – 55 km/h for horizontal deflections. Speeds on
approach to speed humps were found to be influenced by the distance
available on the approaches, while operating speed at the speed humps were
partly influenced by the hump width relative to the road width.
There was evidence of safety benefits of traffic calming overall, despite mid�block crashes increasing post-calming. However, there was no association
between the traffic calming and the crashes, which appeared to probably be
due to other factors, human factors in particular.
Noise levels produced by light vehicles across speed humps were in fact lower
than on a flat section of road, given their respective mean speeds. At a
reference speed of 25 km/h, noise levels produced over the 100 mm hump
were 3.6 dBA higher than those produced by the 75 mm hump |
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