Traffic calming, often referred to as local area traffic management (LATM), is a field of local government practice that is often applied more as art than science. In the 1980s and early 1990s there was a great deal of activity in the field and practitioners were regularly innovating and pushing the boundaries for the benefit of the whole profession. More recently this has been happening much less, such that many would say it is now more difficult for local government engineers to effectively learn and benefit from each other's experiences. As a means of combating this situation and promoting good practice in the field of local area traffic management, this paper provides a comprehensive update on recent local government experience with traffic calming in Australia and New Zealand. It presents the findings of extensive research and consultation undertaken in late 2006 with input received from more than 150 local governments. A range of topics are covered including: the hierarchy of traffic issues facing Councils; the types of devices that are in common use; those treatment types that are most favoured; the application of warrant criteria; what has been the most and least effective treatment types, and why; the cost of implementation of different device types; the devices that are most complained about and why; and the methods used for post construction monitoring.
