How does the City determine the appropriate traffic calming design for a roadway?
- Traffic calming plans are designed to achieve optimal operating speeds without becoming a nuisance to the neighbourhood or adversely affecting services such as transit, waste collection, and emergency response times
- Traffic calming plans will consider different types of traffic calming devices, overall roadway characteristics, spacing, layout, and the impacts the installation of physical traffic calming devices may have on local residents and City services
- When determining locations for the traffic calming devices, staff aimed to minimize the impact on local residents while ensuring appropriate spacing is kept to achieve the desired operating speed
- After the general spacing and layout of the traffic calming device have been established, the final location of each device was determined by considering the location of intersections, drainage, utilities and providing a minimum setback of 3.0 metres from driveways where possible
- Effectiveness of physical traffic calming is directly related to the number of devices installed, and the spacing between devices. Fewer devices means higher operating speeds.
Does traffic calming impact emergency response times?
- Traffic calming designs can accommodate service vehicles such as emergency services vehicles, transit and waste management with limited impact to their operation
- Every traffic calming plan involves communication with emergency services (Fire, Police, Paramedic) and MiWay To date, Road Safety staff have not received any comments from emergency services or MiWay regarding negative impacts on their services.
Are there additional signs and markings?
- Warning signs are installed at each traffic calming location and ‘Traffic Calmed Neighbourhood’ signs are installed on the roadways to advise drivers that traffic calming measures are in place within the neighbourhood
- All traffic calming is marked with white pavement markings for extra visibility
Does traffic calming impact winter maintenance?
- Traffic calming devices are designed so that ploughing operations are not impacted
- Traffic calming has been implemented on City roadways since 2016 and has not had any negative impacts on winter maintenance
What about other temporary measures such as Slow Streets, Speed Awareness Programs, or Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE)?
- Neighbourhoods may see seasonal or temporary deployments of a variety of City initiatives while also being considered for permanent physical traffic calming
- A roadway being considered for permanent physical traffic calming does not prevent other initiatives from being implemented in the interim
- Permanent physical traffic calming, once installed, will likely eliminate the need for future temporary initiatives
- To view a map of where Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras are currently installed, visit mississauga.ca/ase