Noah Kazis talks with Prof. Reid Ewing of the University of Utah, author of the book Traffic Calming: State of the Practice. "
"They're good for traffic control," said Ewing of stop signs and traffic lights. "They're not so good for traffic calming." In other words, they help make traffic flow in a more orderly fashion, but not necessarily in a safer one.
"We kind of panned stop signs as a traffic calming measure," continued Ewing. "They don't do a lot for speeding, because there's a tendency for drivers to make up for the lost time."
Much more about the effectiveness and politics of traffic calming vs. stop signs at Streetsblog.
Thanks to Noah Kazis
