Policy instruments (3) - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 230

In spirit, traffic calming is analogous with 'environmental traffic management' which
began to be introduced in Britain in the 1960s. However environmental management
was limited by what could be achieved through the use of traffic regulations - banning
entry to streets for example and utilising opposing one-way streets as a way of slowing
traffic and discouraging through movement. These measures can still be utilised
(although taken to an extreme they can make access very inconvenient for local
traffic) but supplemented by alterations to the highway itself which is the distinctive
feature of traffic calming. Alternatively, calming techniques can be used instead (e.g.
as a way of reducing speeds without inhibiting access) and are particularly useful in
situations where it is not possible to re-route or otherwise reduce the offending traffic
flows.
Powers were introduced at the beginning of the 1990s to enable highway authorities
to install road humps but these were soon extended to permit a wide variety of physical
measures. These include speed cushions and speed tables which generally have a less
adverse effect than humps on buses and other larger vehicles. They also include road
narrowing (sometimes combined with traffic regulation to indicate a priority direction
of flow) or possibly road marking or other surface treatment which has the same
psychological effect. At the entry to villages or other built-up areas 'gateway' features
can be built which have the effect of registering with drivers that a change is taking
place in conditions even if the physical character of the road itself does not alter. In
urban areas traffic calming features can often be combined with pedestrian refuges or
build-outs at crossing points and with sections of permitted on-street parking, bus and
loading bays etc. as part of an overall design for the use of the carriageway. A short
description of the various techniques and associated guidance is given in Appendix B
of DfT Circular 1/2006.
Given the large number of streets which merit calming treatment the measures
authorities adopt are often the minimum necessary to comply with the regulations
and to achieve the desired alteration in traffic conditions. However there is increasing
recognition that 'damage limitation' from the unwanted effects of traffic is an unduly
narrow objective that fails to acknowledge the opportunities available for designing
and managing streets as spaces which can make a positive contribution to the quality
of life.
For many years attention was focused on shopping streets in town centres using
a combination of traffic and environmental measures to create partially or wholly
pedestrianised areas. At the other end of the spectrum - in both urban and rural
locations where traffic volumes are very low - initiatives have been taken to assert
the interests of non-motorised users through a combination of traffic management
measures and roadspace treatment. The former Countryside Agency promoted the
concept of Quiet Lanes where the roads concerned were a recreational asset for use
by walkers, cyclists and horseriders. In urban residential areas the concept of Home
Zones extends traffic calming to include measures designed to improve the street
environment more generally and to allow for a range of activities other than simply
the movement or storage of vehicles. Currently Quiet Lanes and Home Zones can be
designated under the Transport Act 2000 which then allows complementary use and
speed orders to be introduced.
More ambitiously the objective of 'improving the urban realm' and techniques of
street management are being extended to places where significant traffic volumes
continue to exist. In this context the traditional priority attached to the interests of
moving traffic no longer applies and the division of the highway into 'carriageway' and