Talk:Key:traffic calming

Photos

Can anybody please provide photos for the different objects? The variety seems to be different in different countries. --Lulu-Ann 11:19, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

and could somebody english speaking provide descriptions as well ? didn't understand how any of them differs from the others... --Richlv 17:07, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

I added Wikipedia-links to photos for Lulu-Ann and translations for Richlv --Phobie 18:05, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Okay, let's make this page less dependent on the UK traffic rules :-) What's something like this called in English: [1] (covers the entire road crossing) and then what do you call this: [2]? It looks like you'd both call them speed tables if I look at the Wikipedia page, while they're certainly different things in our country. --Eimai 18:52, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

On nodes or ways ?

Could someone explain when it has to be on nodes and when it is part of a way ? And what happens if ways are splitted or merged ? -- Pieren 15:01, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

In most cases it would be enough to tag a node, but for table and choker it might be useful to tag a way-segment (Some chokers are longer than 50 meters and could be rendered differently). If a way will be split, tags get copied to both segments (just like every time you split a way). If you merge a way you have to deal with conflicts. Generally a way tagged with traffic_calming should not be joined with a way without that key. If you want to describe shared features of different segments use a relation! --Phobie 17:05, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

So mostly on nodes then. Should the node also be highway=traffic_calming (in addition to this key which indicates the exact type) ? Need to say this on the page -- Harry Wood 20:15, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Traffic circle

The traffic circle is a traffic calming device in very common use in urban Australia, often described in council minutes as a mini-roundabout. This page from Seattle describes the traffic circle. --Drlizau 14th December 2008

• In Germany there is something similiar: A roundabout which is no real roundabout as it's not designated as one. They are really small and flat, so trucks and busses can cross them straigh forward. Legally you must not drive a circle, but most people do so. --Bot47 18:08, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

meetingpoint

I couldn't find a better place to put traffic_calming=meetingpoint, so I put it here. I use it for narrow 1-lane roads that have two-way traffic. Here in Norway the meeting points are signed with an M

highway=passing_place Alv 21:14, 26 July 2011 (BST)

I removed it from the page as existing tags provide the means to tag passing places and there's no need to introduce another tag. highway=passing_place and passing_places=* is already in use quite a lot according to taginfo. Jetthe 19:09, 13 August 2011 (BST)

Center island

We need a tag for center islands. This occurs a lot in my part of the United States (Oregon). I see that traffic_calming=island is used according to TagInfo. --PJ Houser 02:27, 3 August 2011 (BST)

Raised islands located along the centerline of a street that narrow the travel lanes at that location, sometimes called midblock medians, median slow points, or median chokers (from ITE [3]).

I have been using traffic_calming=island in conjunction with highway=turning_circle to map rotaries (roundabouts) at the end of a street. I would like to propose this value. It would also work for streets with islands in the middle of a small part of the street. --Panther37 17:29, 30 September 2011 (BST)

Directionality

I agree that we should tag speed bumps/humps at their location in the road (in keeping with tagging them as nodes rather than ways), but then we need to have a way to indicate when they affect only one direction of car traffic. For example, at this location [4] there is a north-south crosswalk across an east-west road. There is a speed bump to the east of the crosswalk for the westbound car traffic approaching the crosswalk, that does not extend into the eastbound lanes. And there is a speed bump to the west of the crosswalk for the eastbound car traffic approaching the crosswalk, that does not extend into the westbound lanes. We have several such installations on our campus, and others off-campus. For now, I have been tagging them with a note=* tag that indicates the direction they affect, but I'm wondering whether we should tag these instead with something like direction=forward or direction=backward, based on the direction of the way into which they have been inserted. In the absence of such a tag, the bump would be assumed to affect both directions (which is the more common situation in this area). --EdH 18:36, 21 October 2011 (BST)

I have the same question: how to mark bump on one direction (half of road)? Here you can see example with 2 bumps on either side of of zebra crossing [5] How about traffic_calming:right=bump or traffic_calming:left=bump in this case? --Chieftl 15:20, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

My proposal is to use suffix :direction in the same way as for traffic_signals - Key:traffic signals:direction. Rumble strips in most cases don't affect both directions. Example: traffic_calming:forward=rumble_strip --Plamen (talk) 05:16, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

I second Plamen's suggestion and I've been using it, specially with rumble strips. This should be added to the wiki to document its use. --AntMadeira (talk) 15:17, 21 October 2023 (UTC)

Choker example link

I wonder about the first of the three recently-inserted example links for traffic_calming=choker: 1. The black-and-white drawing there is a good example, but doesn't the photograph fit the definition of a chicane better (alternating, rather than directly opposite, curb extensions / obstacles that create an S-shaped road)? --Tordanik 01:44, 6 June 2012 (BST)

Yup, I will remove it. Putting in a wikimedia commons example instead./Johan Jönsson 15:27, 4 September 2012 (BST)

Bott

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botts%27_dots

I don't think this should be included as a traffic_calming value, because it isn't mean to slow down the traffic. --Jgpacker (talk) 20:24, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Rumble strips vs. Bott's dots

I have tagged all noise-making traffic calming devices as traffic_calming=rumble_strip. Now I read the description and it apparently includes only long and narrow physical strips. In my area (northern California), most such contrivances are actually made up of a dense array of slightly elevated small circular bumps, also known as Bott's dots. The same kind of dots are also used as lane separators.

Should we expand the definition of this tag to include rumbling devices of all shapes or create another tag for dot arrays?

-- T99 (talk) 09:07, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

Do you have a picture of this kind of bott dots you found? Depending on the case, it might make sense to tag it as traffic_calming=rumble_strip (i.e. if it's used in the same exact way as a rumble strip and is quite similar). But I think it may be better not to mention this in the wiki page at all, because it might generate confusion, leading some people to believe that any presence of bott's dots would be rumble strips. --Jgpacker (talk) 14:32, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Table "translation"

Since content was moved to language wikis, can we remove this table now? Xxzme (talk) 18:11, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

The translations don't bother me, but if you want to remove them, please leave the images in place. --Tordanik 19:59, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

I did it last year (version 23:59, 31 August 2013) but Jgpacker reverted my edit... --Oligo (talk) 21:01, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

I reverted it because I was under the impression some info was lost in the transition. I was in a translation marathon, so I didn't check it as thoroughly as I should... I'm ok with removing the translations, but preferably leaving the content in the page, because it's hard to edit things in the Map Features Template (that's not what confused me at the time, but it did contribute). --Jgpacker (talk) 11:44, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

I have removed the "Translation" table and transformed the "common values" list. No information was lost. How about it? --Mfuji (talk) 04:48, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

No area?

Why shouldn't traffic_calming be an area? Think of a roundabout: Often there is an island in the middle. I would tag that island as traffic_calming=island. Any other suggestions? --TBKMrt (talk) 18:20, 23 November 2014 (UTC)

For areas of traffic calming, there are other terms. One of them already has become a tag.

• Tag:highway=living_street
• Shared space (NL, Brighton/UK, Bohmte/DE [there the whole central township] & al.)
• Begegnungszone (CH, there some in commercial downtown areas)

--Ulamm (talk) 20:26, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

And how should traffic island in the middle of a roundabout be tagged? --TBKMrt (talk) 02:44, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

Are these islands supposed to calm the traffic going over the middle (i.e. slow it down) or rather to completely discurage driving through the middle and make traffic go around it on the roundabout lane(s) instead?

--Das-g (talk) 17:42, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Pure calming vs. combined calming & enhancement

Traverse sills ("bumps") and tableau crossroads can be pure traffic calmimg.

But but bicycle crossings on sidewalk level in streets with cycletracks on sidewalk level are not merely calming. They delay vehicles (partly including bicycles) coming from side streets or entering those streets. But they enhance bicycle traffic along the main road.

Therefore, a tag crossing=sidewalk_level (or similar) is afforded.--Ulamm (talk) 20:37, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

Inverse bumps

How to tag traffic calming that is like a bump, but lowered instead of elevated?

Some suggestions:

• traffic_calming=ditch
• traffic_calming=inverse_bump

--Das-g (talk) 18:09, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

I have been using traffic_calming=dip. They are sometimes preceded by a warning sign saying "dip" (in the US). Often they are primarily meant to drain storm water and the traffic calming effect is unintentional. -- T99 (talk) 04:13, 7 June 2016 (UTC)

In The Netherlands some cycle roads have a kind of double dip, 2 inverse bumps over a lenght of about 4 meters, with white warning signs on it, like most single bumps. Different from the 'dip' there is no water involved. I clipped a picture from Google Maps, as I didn't make a picture of them myself yet. [How do I insert the picture on this page?] Do you think a separate sign is necessary? --User:HeRa56 15:49, 29 October 2017

Re "I clipped a picture from Google Maps ... How do I insert the picture on this page?": You don't. We respect all other entities' copyrights. Specifically, we don't copy anything from Google Maps. --T99 (talk) 16:50, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

While uploading the clippings here is indeed certainly off-limits (see also the message below the wiki edit form, saying "As with editing maps, please ensure you are not copying when contributing to the wiki [...]"), linking to them at their original location should be OK. (Dunno if Google StreetView features permalinks/deeplinks.)

The ones I meant can be seen on Mapillary here (at the lower left, unfortunately not well-lit on that photograph) and here (at the lower right). There is a (by now somewhat faded/worn) white marking line on the asphalt around the ditches/dips, probably intended as a warning. They have a drain for water, though the placement of these two ditches suggests that they've indeed been intended as traffic calming (and the drain is needed, so the dips won't collect water) and not the other way around (the dips being there to drain that part of the road).

--Das-g (talk) 17:37, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

Links are probably ok unless they violate the terms of usage of the target. -- T99 (talk) 04:18, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

To upload one's own images one can go here and insert them like the one below:

This dip is certainly not a speed control device but deep enough to warrant a warning sign. --T99 (talk) 06:13, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

Anti bump

Is there any tag that relates to some sort of anti-bump (short like a bump, but it's hole like and not hill like) --TBKMrt (talk) 22:00, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

That's literally the topic of the previous section. ;-) --Das-g (talk) 22:55, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

I always fortgot to add this question so I just clicked on add topic without looking so that I won't forget again --TBKMrt (talk) 14:26, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

Choker vs Narrow

Hello, what are the usage differences between traffic_calming=choker and narrow=yes ?? --Jake9wi (talk) 00:44, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:traffic_calming#By_causing_lateral_deviation could all be kinds of narrow=yes, that is specifically constructed for traffic calming, and usually a very short section. That being said, the tagging/scheme of narrow=yes is not as clear as traffic_calming=*. Overpass Turbo returns some dozens of uses with the combination of both narrow=yes and traffic_calming=choker. Kovposch (talk) 07:49, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

Bollards

Is there a way to mark calming with bollards that are put between lanes? Examples: [6][7] Rostaman (talk) 20:56, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

This is a great question on the fundamental definition of physical separation, and thus what gets splited into 2. It can't really be handled by traffic_calming=*. In current terms, I would split these if you want to repersent them very much. If you don't want to do the heavy work yet, you may consider using change:lanes=* to represent its effect as a first step. I There are often roads with much sparser delineator pole (these may not be considered "bollards") density that makes me reluctant to split them. -- Kovposch (talk) 05:29, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

Well hmm I wouldn't split ways over these really, IME they're more of a temporary measure like speed bumps. They pop up and often disappear after a few years, same as those. I'm wondering if people sue the city when they plow into them :D (that's how speed bumps are made to go away over here). Ocassionally they're next to speed cushions so people can't bypass the cushions, in that case change:lanes=* would add information. However mostly they're in places where you already aren't allowed to change lanes, so what they do is only make people drive slower. That's why it makes sense to me to think of it as traffic calming. Rostaman (talk) 18:11, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

Both lateral and vertical deflection

For the moment there is only one combination of vertical and horizontal deflection possible: chocked_table = chocker + table. Here in Belgium we have many chocker + cushion. They are sometimes mapped with a combination of cushion + priority=* (see for example https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/88519657). Should we introduce new tags like traffic_calming=chocked_cushion, or treat the case of a one-way point independently of the vertical deflection, or introduce suffixes like ":horizontal" and ":vertical"...? Any advice?

Dragon's teeth

traffic_calming=dragons_teeth - dragon's teeth are different from tank_trap=dragons_teeth. --Davileci (talk) 08:34, 24 September 2024 (UTC)