APPENDIX B
WORKSHOP REPORT 

This letter report was prepared early in the study and is discussed in Section 2 of the report.

Letter Report

Pilot Test of Novel Speed Reducing Program

Contract No. DTNH22-99-D-05099, Task Order 2

July 3, 2001

THE SPEED WORKSHOP: FEASIBLE COUNTERMEASURES

A panel of 14 experts was assembled for a speed workshop. The panel included individuals from areas with and without innovative speed reduction activities. It also included individuals who were specialists in research on speed countermeasures, research on pedestrian safety, state-of-the-practice of traffic calming, enforcement, and education. The workshop was held on May 10 and May 11, 2001, at the Federal Highway Administration Learning Center in Arlington , Virginia . The panel members are listed in Appendix A.

The NHTSA Task Order Manager explained that the purpose of the study was to develop a behavior-based supplement to engineering approaches to reduce speeding in neighborhoods. The program will be tested to determine if education and enforcement techniques produce an added benefit when added to traffic calming.

The study principal investigator explained that workshop participants will be challenged to identify candidate test conditions, evaluation paradigms and possible test locations. The aim was to identify a reasonable (in terms of cost and time) and sufficiently general test or tests that will shed light on the problem at hand.

Countermeasures

The program was initiated by having workshop participants identify speed-reducing techniques in the three E's–engineering, enforcement, and education. They identified engineering techniques first, followed by enforcement techniques and education techniques. Participants were asked to consider new as well as existing techniques and were told that they could identify temporary as well as permanent techniques. The focus was to be on reducing speed, and all ideas were to be considered acceptable (that is, there were no bad ideas). When they ran out of ideas, participants were asked to identify anything in the roadway that had made them slow down recently. Over 250 different ideas were documented. They are appended to this letter report (Appendices B, C, and D). The ideas in the appendices are listed in the section (engineering, enforcement, education) in which they were identified regardless of whether or not they were appropriate to that section.

The various countermeasures in each set were noted on index cards and random selections were made from each set. Constraints and positive aspects were then noted for each. These data are summarized in Table 1. The table shows the following principles and considerations that emerged from this activity that would be applicable to the project:

Table 1
Randomly Selected Triples

• The countermeasure can trick the senses, but it can't be deceitful (e.g., an artificial construction zone).

• The countermeasure can't be ugly or devalue the neighborhood (e.g., an artificial construction zone, a poorly designed median).

• The countermeasure should improve the neighborhood (e.g., a well-designed median).

• Neighbors might not like to be the bad guy (e.g., participate in a trial by peers).

• There should be teeth in the sanctions (a trial by peers may not have teeth).

• There must be places in the area to mount the countermeasure (e.g., there are few red lights in residential areas).

• The countermeasure must not contribute to neighborhood litter (e.g., windshield wiper flyers).

• The countermeasure must not be annoying (e.g., windshield wiper flyers).

• The countermeasure must be legal (e.g., mounting flyers on utility poles is illegal).

• The countermeasure must be easily targeted (in-car cameras are tough to target).

• The cost must be reasonable (cameras are expensive).

• There should be no privacy issue (people don't want to feel watched).

• Providing a good model for children is desirable (e.g., sending materials home from school).

• Crime reduction can be an added benefit (e.g., assuring adequate lighting).

• Sufficient space must be available (e.g., a street wide enough to install a median).

• It is preferable that a residential countermeasure not limit access to homes and driveways (as would a median; however, short medians could be installed).

• Temporary engineering measures, if used, must be attached to the roadway.

• Appropriate data must be available or collectible (GIS data may be good for locating facilities, providing crash data as a surrogate for speed data).

• Neighborhood involvement is advisable (as in a neighborhood speed watch program).

• Good engineering may not need education.

As an assignment, participants were asked to identify one or more of each type of countermeasure that they would recommend for the study. The countermeasures could be selected from the lists developed by workshop participants or could be ones not previously identified. In effect, the participants were asked to select the engineering, enforcement, and education countermeasures that they would recommend for the NHTSA program. Participants were advised that they did not necessarily need to choose the most widespread traffic calming implementations. They were advised that the project needs an engineering technique that has been shown to produce some speed reduction without education or enforcement. Twelve participants responded. Their recommended programs are shown in Table 2.

Participants were then asked to vote for their preferred program but were not allowed to vote for the ones they recommended. There was no consensus among participants. Two programs (numbers 2 and 8 in Table 2) received two votes each. All others received one vote or no votes.

With regard to types of countermeasures, engineering activities included primarily standard interventions (e.g., speed humps, roundabouts, diverters, bulbouts, curb extensions, medians). Some participants did not feel that speed humps represent good current practice. Enforcement activities included police patrols, radar trailers, and neighborhood watches. One participant recommended judicial support. Participants noted that highlighting police presence can be impractical in small neighborhoods. Education activities were localized and included door hangers, signs, brochures/flyers brought home by school children, community meetings, street parties, newspaper articles, and printing of violators.

Evaluation/Measurement Considerations

With regard to temporary versus permanent engineering measures, participants were unanimous in recommending that the project work with permanent installations. The following principles were noted:

Temporary installations devalue treatment; there is no ownership; they convey the wrong message (“we're not sure” or “we want to see if you like it”).

• Installations must have public acceptance.

• It is hard to generalize from temporary to permanent installations.

• Temporaries provide no permanent change.
  

Table 2
Participant-Selected Triples

With regard to process, it was considered desirable that the project start from the beginning and look at transition from a non-calmed to a calmed neighborhood. The time to reach a steady state would be examined. Police play a role in the transition. The process is critical. Perceptions of prevailing speeds should be measured before the neighborhood is selected. On the other hand, it was acknowledged that this might not be possible under the constraints of the study. Using an already calmed location with available “before” data was considered viable.

In a discussion of meaningful speed and volume reductions, the following measures of effectiveness were noted:

• Impact on pedestrian traffic
• Volume
• Cut-throughs
• Speed (speed tube technology, stopwatch distance approaches)

With regard to speed, it was agreed that 85th percentile and average aren't good measures of what people are concerned about. People want the excessive speeders eliminated. The ratio of speed above and below the speed limit can provide a threshold. Police could give a ticket if the speed is seven miles per above the posted speed. For a neighborhood speed of 25 mph, one can provide:

• A ratio of 32+ to <32
• A ratio of 32+ to 25-
• A speed drop of 85th to 95th percentile distribution

It was agreed that the project should focus on overall comfort level and unacceptably high speeds. The aim is to eliminate the bizarre speeds–the outliers. Thus the project should focus on both the high tail, the threshold ratio, and the mean. This focus requires accurate speed data on each vehicle not class interval or “bin” data that are produced by some traffic counters.

The project needs to collect raw speed data. Data should show speed at the intervention as well as through the neighborhood. Thus, there must be multiple measurement points.

Other ideas that were posed for evaluation include:

• Obtain pre- and post-project community opinions–Is the community better? Was the inconvenience worth it?

• Conduct a realtor survey to determine relative value of people's properties–What is the perceived value of homes? How many days do homes stay on the market before selling?

• Survey neighborhood associations and friends. What are the number and types of contacts with neighbors (direct and indirect) in the last week?

• Determine neighbor speed perceptions? Is the rate too fast, not too fast?

• Increase the number at or below the speed limit by x percent (50%).

• Measure speed uniformity/variability.

• What is the travel time through the neighborhood?

Possible Test Sites

The communities listed below were recommended as possible test sites. They include sites where pre- and post-studies have not shown optimum results, places with good process and treatments pending, and those with both areas where installations have not had optimum results and where good process and treatments are pending.

• Pre- and post- studies that have not had optimum results:
  • Sacramento , California
  • Kensington , Maryland
  • Salt Lake City , Utah
  • Phoenix , Arizona
  • Gainesville , Florida
  • Boca Raton , Florida

• Places with good process and treatments pending:
  • Clearwater , Florida
  • Long Island , New York
  • Asheville , North Carolina
  • Hillsborough , Florida
  • Pinellas County , Florida

• Both:
  • St. Petersburg , Florida
  • Cambridge , Massachusetts
  • Fort Lauderdale , Florida
  • Orlando , Florida
  • Seattle , Washington
  • Bellevue , Washington

Future Plans

At a brief meeting between project personnel and the Task Order Manager following the workshop, it was agreed that a working session should be scheduled with the Task Order Manager to process the data from the workshop and make a final choice requiring countermeasure selection.

Appendix A
Workshop Participants

Appendix B
Engineering Techniques

• Medians
• Speed bumps
• Speed humps
• Speed tables
• Chicanes
• Roundabouts
• Landscaping
• Curb extensions
• Bike lanes
• Sidewalks
• Parking management
• Angle parking
• Horizontal diversions
• Angle slow points
• Pot holes
• Delineators
• Street closures
• One-way streets
• Two-ways from one-ways
• Traffic management
• Narrowing lanes
• Adequate lighting
• Signage
• Stop signs
• Four-way stops
• Differential paving color
• Differential paving textures
• System network
• Rumble strips
• Visual narrowing
• Vista termination
• Post-mounted delineators
• RPMs
• Bollards
• Planter strips
• Trees
• Ambiance
• Pedestrians
• Striping to achieve narrowing
• Crosswalks
• Traffic signals
• Flashing lights/beacons
• Speed-sensitive traffic signals
• Staggerings/chokers
• Gateways
• Smart speed feedback display trailers
• Driveway link
• Toys in the road
• Chalk outline of a body
• Crosses for fatals
• Roadside ditches
• Roadway governors/electronic imposed
• Adaptive speed bump–the faster you go the higher it gets
• Posted vs. actual speed display
• Variable speed limits
• Encourage on street parking
• Pedestrian malls near schools
• Street closures
• Woonerfs
• Informal playgrounds/play streets
• Picnic tables, petting zoos in street
• Mural painted in intersection
• District gateway
• Car with speed chip to remind of speeding
• Painted potholes
• Dips
• Swingarms/toll barriers
• Red light that only turns green if you're below speed limit
• 200 “toot” car design limit
• On-board warning transmitter to car
• Unusual speed limits (e.g., 23 mph)
• Tiger teeth that appear if you're speeding
• Portable tiger teeth
• Zigzags before crosswalks
• Mud baths
• Footprint crosswalks
• Make intersection look like room as on Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando (monotubes)
• Embedded pavement lights in crosswalks
• Centerline lights that flash to speeders
• Speed pillows
• Countdown timers/time to wait/time to cross
• Laser closure
• On street alert–louder as you get faster
• Alternate streets convert to left-hand drive
• Pinball gate–flips you to next street if going too fast
• Inflatable speed bumps
• Cobblestones
• Lights get brighter as you go faster
• Hold red until crosswalk clear
• Hologram pedestrians and police officers
• Grass streets
• Longitudinal treatment to effectively narrow streets
• Tractor beam
• Electronic school pass with so many school trips allowed
• EZ Pass debit/credit system based on speed
• Neighborhood speeder, “good guy” list based on EZPass
• Weather sensitive speed activities
• Countermeasures for aggressive driving stimulators
• Car reporting automatically to police department
• Teenage monitor cameras, GPS
• Visual pacifiers/calming devices
• Irregular shaped sidewalks
• Limit on teenage passengers
• Deteriorating pavement (made driver slow down)
• Dead deer/pets (made driver slow down)
• Mud on road (made driver slow down)
• Tailgater (made driver slow down)
• Feedback signs (made driver slow down)
• Construction zones (made driver slow down)
• Funeral processions (made driver slow down)
• Negative superelevations as in roundabouts
• Rebrick streets
• Manually operated pedestrian present sign
• Put old tires in the street as planters

• Red light running cameras
• Hide cameras in trees
• Neighborhood changeable message signs
• Tickets
• Highly visible enforcement folks–frequent reminders–be seen a lot
• Lots of sirens
• Bright yellow police cars
• Affordable neighborhood cops–can write tickets, speed enforcement specialists
• Fine on the spot
• Automated enforcement
• Neighborhood crime/speed watch
• Publish names of offenders
• Special patrols in school grounds–double fines in school zones
• Radar speed feedback trailer
• Feedback trailer that would also display license plate
• Post license number of speeders
• School police involved in traffic
• Loss of parking privileges at school/on street if you speed
• Positive reinforcement for speed compliance
• Park police cars in neighborhoods
• More local doughnut shops
• Police service aids
• Citizen reporting of violations and police follow-up letters
• Drone radars to set off radar speed detectors
• Train citizens on how to estimate speed with stopwatches and chalk lines
• Autodial every phone in neighborhood and deliver a recorded message
• Publicize a blitz enforcement on particular streets
• Enlist all enforcement agencies to be involved (e.g., Sheriff, Highway Patrol)
• Warnings
• Speed watch neighborhood adopted by residents-double fines/graduated fines; speed trailers, more enforcement
• Alternative sentencing–with speed culprit scarlet letter
• Make violators get out of car to make them more visible
• Violator bumper stickers/zebra tags
• Residents mark cars so cops know that car was driven by a violator
• Automatic speeding lights installed on cars that only police can turn off
• Patrol area community policing kiosks to expand presence
• Bike cops
• Motorcycle/motor scooter cops
• Feedback from citizens–neighborhood intelligence gathering
• Adopt-a-cop
• Educating the police about the importance of speed control
• Crossing guards feedback paddles
• Recognition for individual police officer effort
• Direct financial rewards for enforcement
• Decoy officers/decoy offenders
• Political permission/mandate to enforce the laws
• Enforce all laws equally–driver/pedestrian/bicycle
• Judicial support
• Peer courts–community tries you
• Variation in speed tolerance as a function of speed limit
• Block parties with police invited–increase police contact in the neighborhood
• Direct police/citizen contact with violators
• Specialist speed officers remove the stigma of traffic “trophies”
• Ticket cars parked on sidewalk to get them to move to the street and slow traffic
• Neighborhood speed audit-trained officer conducts speed audit–publish result–get residents to do things to control speeds like parking in the street
• Set speed limits by consensus of residents
• Follow-up letters to speeding tickets from police and community association
• Neighborhood speeding school instead of fine for ticket
• Officers deploy speed attenuation signs/cones, scene tape to control speeds
• Pedestrian presence reduced speed limit
• Take home police cars allowed for personal use
• Better graduation of penalties for speeding so that threshold does come up all of a sudden
• Community service fines

Appendix D
Education Techniques

• Premium for people driving slow
• Pace car
• Pop-up policeman–speed sensitive
• Automatic ticket machine
• Burma Shave signs
• High visibility materials on pedestrians
• More graphic PSAs as in Australia
• Public media support for police mission
• Educate developers in design for speed control
• Involve children as spokespersons
• Elementary school education and take home
• Use education to change the culture that car is king
• Reward car nonuse around schools–walkers first
• Target drivers rather than pedestrians
• Involve seniors in campaigns since they are most vulnerable
• Traffic calming does not take away your mobility–it's responsible use
• Drivers handbooks
• TV
• Radio
• Newspapers
• Internet ads
• Training programs
• Billboards
• Utility pole signs–homemade
• Mix safety education with regular curriculum
• Positive messages thanking people for driving responsibly
• Stencils
• Special signs–“A traffic calmed neighborhood”
• Two-sided paddle signs held by people in the neighborhood
• Churches
• Homeowners' associations
• Scouts
• Local businesses
• Signs
• Tailored brochures on speeding
• Tailored brochures signed by neighbors
• Walk our Children to School Day
• Neighborhood gateway entry sign showing number of people/pets killed or injured–days since a close call or injury
• Sign which shows percentage of people following the speed limit and the all-time high percentage
• Sign with neighborhood census showing the real population characteristics
• Convincer demos with dummies
• Publicize increased risk of dying as speed goes up for drivers as well as peds
• Neighborhood speed regulation made part of remedial traffic offender schools
• Link between excess speed and community livability
• Use GIS tools to target residential neighborhoods based on crashes
• Find a spokesperson who was involved in a speeding-related crash
• Cut down speed depiction in movies/TV
• Doorhangers
• Personal interviews
• Homeowners'associations newsletters
• Message under windshield wipers
• Banner over street
• PTA/PTO
• Street party
• Senior centers/community centers
• Painting murals in the street
• Neighborhood petition
• Neighborhood flags
• “We live here”
• “No bump” sign
• Neighborhood pace car program
• MTV to target young adults
• Cable
• Consequences – insurance, wrecking a car
• Focus on teenage driver and lifelong disability
• Need to identify the speeders
• Special identification of streets
• Name street after kids or families to personify it
• Intersection painting program
• People waving to cars
• Benches in front yards at curb
• Camera boxes to watch motorists like the school bus camera
• “Speed box” ahead
• Ribbons for anti-speeding program
• Watch for “ground hogs”
• “We have no sidewalks – we depend on you for pedestrian safety”
• Neighborhood ownership
• Knock on doors
• Neighborhood services department
• Autodial “outgoing 911"
• Retroreflective giveaway
• Real estate agent newsletters
• Educate realtors to indicate when house is in calmed area
• Flags distributed (American flag) saying we don't speed
• School contests focused on speeding
• Come up with name for individuals who exhibit the behavior we're trying to discourage (e.g., jaywalker, scofflaw)
• Come up with better phrase than “traffic calming”