Traffic calming consists of physical design and other measures, including narrowed roads and speed humps, put in place on roads for the intention of slowing down or reducing motor-vehicle
traffic as well as to improve safety for
pedestrians and
cyclists.
Urban planners and
traffic engineers have many strategies for traffic calming. Such measures are common in
Australia and
Europe (especially Northern Europe), but less so in
North America. Traffic calming is a
calque (literal translation) of the German word
Verkehrsberuhigung - the term's first published use in English was in 1985 by Carmen Hass-Klau.