Effects of scale and efficiency of rural traffic calming on safety, accessibility and wildlife

This paper examines the effects of scale and efficiency of regional traffic calming on traffic safety, rural accessibility, and survival of wildlife. We distinguish by the scale of road networks affected and considered the efficiencies of various bundling of traffic flows on designated routes. Safety gains are smaller for larger scales systems of traffic bundling and, given a particular scale of traffic calming, considerably lower with less efficient bundling. Efficient traffic bundled on higher speed, major roads results in a small gains in travel time and safety, but the presence of wildlife increases more with larger scales of traffic calming.

► Rural traffic calming improves safety and population persistence of wildlife. ► We investigate impacts of scale and efficiency of bundling in a theoretical network. ► The higher the efficiency of bundling, the better the improvements. ► Wildlife gains with increasing scales, at a small cost to safety and travel times.