The study includes a State of the Art report, creation of a short course in traffic calming, creation of a consortium of traffic calming experts, and a website. A pilot course will be held at the ITE annual meeting in Toronto later this year. Other items should be available before the end of 1998. FHWA is consolidating some existing reference materials for its field offices, for distribution later in the year. There are several possible categories of traffic calming measures that have been proposed, but no one scheme has been universally accepted.
Accepted traffic calming terminology varies as well.
Many jurisdictions require 80-90 percent of the community to endorse the traffic calming measure before they are put in. Speed humps are popular but require coordination with emergency response providers to minimize decreases in emergency response times or otherwise damage equipment. FHWA is currently looking into traffic calming on higher level roadways. For example, their potential use in rural America, where major arterials go through small-town Main Streets, or as mitigation for community impacts resulting from transportation projects. For more information, take a look at the list of Traffic Calming Resources that are available on the web.