Encouraging slower vehicle speeds through traffic calming creates a safer and more pleasant environment for walking, playing outside, or enjoying the outdoors. Slower speeds result in safer streets and less severe crashes.

Creating more enjoyable local streets starts with setting speed limits that are safe for everyone, including those walking and biking. Traffic calming can be used to encourage drivers to travel at the posted speed limit on streets where speeding is a consistent issue.

The City’s neighborhood traffic calming program provides improvements that reduce speeding, reduce crashes, encourage walking and biking on local streets, and improve the quality of life in residential neighborhoods.

The program contains a step-by-step process for achieving traffic calming through engineering efforts, with the added support of education and enforcement initiatives. The guide below outlines the street selection criteria, traffic calming process, and countermeasure options for local streets.

The City of Hilliard has approximately ten years of vehicle speed and volume data for many neighborhood streets. This data ensures that resources are focused where the most significant speeding is occurring. New speed data is collected routinely and after major roadway geometry changes. Crash data is also considered in the neighborhood traffic calming process, although historically there have been minimal crashes on local streets.

The City of Hilliard has included an annual traffic calming program in its capital improvement budget to provide funding for planning and implementation of neighborhood traffic calming projects citywide. Low-cost solutions will be implemented first before consideration is given to implementing higher-cost street modifications.

For more information, please see the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program Guide and Toolkit.