Some experts are either lying or ignorant
You're allowed - encouraged even! - to calm traffic on busy roads.
There’s a greater-than-zero percent of the population who think words are violence. The term traffic calming will send some into dizzying outbursts of rage. Calm traffic is safe traffic, but some can’t help but get furious about it. (I’ll admit, my inner Twitter/X troll loves this reaction.)
When I post FHWA-endorsed ways of saving lives and property damage, one of the most common pushbacks I get is “yeah, but that’s just for neighborhood streets. This is an important arterial.” First of all, it’s funny to me that safety improvements are only needed on already safe streets. Second, the claim is wrong.
The US Department of Transportation has an entire program (and humongous online library) dedicated to road safety.
FHWA’s Proven Safety Countermeasures initiative (PSCi) is a collection of 28 countermeasures and strategies effective in reducing roadway fatalities and serious injuries on our Nation’s highways.
Or as the transportation industry calls the initiative, "stuff we ignore."
These strategies are designed for all road users and all kinds of roads—from rural to urban, from high-volume freeways to less traveled two-lane State and county roads, from signalized crossings to horizontal curves, and everything in between.
If someone tells you that traffic on busy roads can't or shouldn't be calmed, they're either lying or just ignorant.
I know that sounds harsh, but that’s the cold reality. The US Department of Transportation isn’t always on the high road. After all, they still give hundreds of millions of dollars to state and local agencies—funds that, by their own admission, will be used to make arterials more dangerous.
I highly recommend reading through the FHWA page. Each of the 28 safety strategies has its own page, references, and links to more information. You might not be interested in all 28, so here are the ones that are vital:
Bike lanes (As a safety measure? Yes!)
Every region in the country has examples of corridors that could be dramatically improved if experts had the stomach and/or backbone. Ask yourself (or an engineer) why it's more controversial to make LA's 101 safer than it is to keep it dangerous.
How to design streets for calm driving
A house limits your ability to run. You walk from the bedroom to the kitchen. Guests visit, and they walk around and sit down. An open field gives you space to go as fast as your body motor allows. Friends and strangers can run with you, or in different directions.
Long as engineers don't turn these into stroads!