Community-Focused Traffic Calming SHOULD Look Like…
As communities, facilities and municipalities around the country investigate traffic calming solutions, they are bound to evaluate all types of solutions (download our guide to all 21st century traffic calming solutions here). One community in Vancouver, WA has taken it to a new level—ground level.
At the intersection of East 33rd and R Streets in the Rose Village neighborhood, community leaders, teachers and children are working together to paint a large mural. The idea is to remind speeding drivers that human beings are all around so that they will slow down. Washington Elementary School is just a few blocks away and does not have a designated crosswalk and flashing beacons are in the wrong place, so a traffic calming solution is desperately needed.
This unified community approach is so nice to see and the mural is pretty! However, the very real life-and-death consequences brought on by speeding drivers requires a more comprehensive approach. A combination of traffic calming best practices—addressing education, enforcement and engineering—must be considered if the solution is to deliver real results.
Driver feedback signs from Radarsign are scientifically proven to be effective and they are beautiful. Paired with the muraled intersection, a new designated crosswalk and properly relocated beacons, our solar powered radar speed signs would maintain the ambiance of the community and make it safer. This is what community-focused traffic calming should look like…and do.