Page 74 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Ramiz Babayev: “Traffic growth in the context of economic development - what
traffic calming measures can be taken?”

supports economic development; however, congestion problems, severe accidents,
noise, and air pollution are among the negative implications of traffic growth.
Transport plays an important role in the economic development (Banister, 2012)
of the country and, since the second half of the last century, transports planners and
engineers as well as policy-makers have started to think about how to accommodate
growing traffic volumes within the cities. Thus, tackling the negative impacts of traffic
growth is one of the main goals for planners and engineers (Goodstein, 2011).
Traffic calming measure techniques is one of the most widely-used design
strategies deployed to solve the problems caused by traffic growth.
Considering all the above-mentioned facts, this article intends to investigate
appropriate engineering techniques of traffic calming measures to achieve an
improvement in conditions for pedestrians in residential areas in inner cities.
The article starts with an exploration of traffic growth from the aspect of
economic development, its impacts, and the way engineers and planners face the
implications of the development of transport. Then it briefly examines traffic
calming issues and their emergence, discussing their main directions. Moreover, the
article will discuss the benefits and costs of traffic calming; the conclusion will
answer the central question by proposing appropriate measures for the improvement
of conditions for pedestrians in the inner city residential areas.

Economic development and traffic growth
Economic development accelerated traffic growth during the last century and,
as a result of this development, people benefited from the comfort provided by new
transport methods, such as buses, trains, cars, trams and other private methods.
Traffic growth also caused suburbanization as it became easier for people to travel
long distances, and planners have started to look for ways of accommodating the
growing traffic within the existing infrastructure in order to ensure the safety of
pedestrians. (Headicar P., 2009) Phillip B. Goodwin (Button and Hensher, 2001)
points out that “the most influential thinking among transport planners and political
bodies was influenced by two main presumptions:
th
1) Growth of traffic during 20 century in mobility was, in general terms, to
be encouraged rather than discouraged, but was in any case largely outside the scope
of any policy intervention: it was viewed as an autonomous and inevitable trend,
driven primarily by the free choices of individuals, and enabled by the steady growth
of real income that all countries sought to provide.
2) Therefore the main objective of policy in national and local government was to
accommodate this growth in as civilized and efficient a manner as possible, providing

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