Point scoring system to rank traffic calming projects

The installation of calming measures on a road network is systematically planned way in general to reduce driving speeds, but also reduces the volume of through traffic on local and residential streets. When the demands of traffic calming exceed city resources, there is a need to prioritize or rank them. Asian countries, like Japan, Korea, Bangladesh and etc., do not have a prioritization system to apply in such cases. The objective of this research is to develop a point ranking system to prioritize traffic calming projects. Firstly paired comparison method was employed to obtain residents' opinions about the streets severity and needs of traffic calming treatment. A binary logistic regression model was developed to identify the factors of selecting streets for traffic calming. This model also explored the weight of variables during developing the point ranking system. The weights used in the point ranking system include vehicle speed, pedestrian generation, sidewalk condition and hourly vehicle volume per width (m) of street. Results suggest that the severity of street largely depends on the absence of sidewalks, which has a weight of 45%, and high hourly vehicle volume of traffic per width (m) of street, which has a weight of 38%. These outcomes are significant to develop the state of traffic safety in Japan and other Asian countries.