Country: Canada
Key Area: Transportation
Services: Traffic Engineering

Typically, traffic calming initiatives apply the installation of physical measures, such as speed cushions or speed humps, to slow the speed and control the volume of traffic in order to improve safety on local streets.  However, vertical deflection measures such as speed humps and raised crosswalks, and obstruction measures such as diverters and road closures, while often effective in reducing traffic volumes on local roads or neighbourhood collectors, have been met with challenges in recent years.  In recognition of Alberta municipalities requiring strategies to deal with these issues, the Centre for Transportation Engineering & Planning (C-TEP), with support from Strathcona County, retained Opus International Consultants (Opus) to establish a framework for a new way of looking at transportation choices at the neighbourhood level.  Synergizing the understanding of current issues in Alberta neighbourhoods through consultation with agencies throughout the province, an awareness of best practices and current trends in providing for sustainable modes, through Opus’ own experience in the field and a literature and best practices review that was international in scope, and a keen sense of the drawbacks of implementing physical traffic calming measures, Opus established a new framework establishing transportation issues and choices within a neighbourhood which identifies key improvement opportunities that will increase liveability and sustainable transportation choices: Sustainable Transportation Assessments for Neighbourhoods, or STANs. STANs can be seen as a logical evolution of traffic calming, one that takes into account contemporary pursuits of many jurisdictions such as promoting active transportation, providing for multiple modes of travel, and moving away from post-war, auto-centric transportation planning.  Where the traditional calming process often uses physical measures to either slow or redirect vehicles on neighbourhood streets, which may improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, STANs reverses this process: through a more thorough diagnosis of underlying traffic issues in a neighbourhood, the STANs framework provides solutions which aim to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, with the resulting mitigations helping to slow and reduce short-cutting traffic where necessary, while improving the overall health and mobility of the neighbourhood. Accordingly, the sustainable in STANs can be seen to have two meanings: by providing solutions that cater to carbon-free and active travel modes, and by correctly identifying the source of complaints, ensuring a traffic calming process is not frequently repeated, and often isn’t needed in the first place.

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