Traffic calming tool developed by City of Calgary

Tony Churchill, a senior traffic safety engineer for the City of Calgary, has come up with a new way to slow traffic and keep neighbourhoods safe.

Churchill was getting a lot of requests for traffic calming in communities across the city that couldn’t be fulfilled.

"There are a lot of traffic calming measures such as curb extensions, small roundabouts and median islands that become quite cost-prohibitive due to pavement work, drainage issues and underground utilities," Churchill said.

Instead of giving up, Churchill decided to come up with a solution. He looked at the geometry of many common traffic calming measures and developed an oval shaped, low-profile concrete unit that could be placed in a variety of ways to create the same results of other, more expensive, traffic calming measures. According to the city, these new traffic calming curbs are a cost-effective method that can be used to quickly address traffic calming issues.

"The goal of the traffic calming curbs is to change the geometry of the road in a way that feels safer and also results in fewer collisions resulting in injury or fatality for all of Calgary’s road users," Churchill said.

The curbs will be used to provide temporary traffic calming measures in communities where permanent solutions have not been budgeted for. They have been designed to withstand exposure to the elements and snow and ice control materials like salt and gravel and weigh over 1,700 pounds to prevent them from moving. They are also made out of yellow cement to make them easier to see and more visually appealing.

The traffic calming curbs are currently being piloted for effectiveness. For now, the city will begin using them on roads with a 50 km/h speed limit where issues have already been identified and traffic calming is required but cannot be immediately installed due to budget or other construction constraints. Once the pilot for the curbs has been completed and standards for their use have been determined there may be more opportunity for citizens to request them in their communities, Churchill added.