On select roads, speed humps and speed tables help to curb excessive traffic volume and risky speeds, increasing community safety and livability for all.
Each year, as part of Vision Zero, the Safe Mobility Engineering team selects locations for projects to use proven traffic calming measures to upgrade existing streets across the city.
The speed humps and speed tables program aims to encourage safer speeds and driving behaviours along priority corridors where traffic safety improvements are needed to increase community safety and livability for all.
The City installs these upgrades at upwards of 20 sites per year through this program. Visit the Safe Streets Map to see locations that have new speed humps and speed tables.
Location Factors
Speed hump and speed table locations have been identified based on a number of different factors:
- Public inquiries
- The roadway was identified as a high-speed, high traffic volume, high vulnerable road user volume, such as playground zone or high crash area
- Other areas were identified originally through the Street Labs program
- Some were identified through previous assessments for other safety measures
Benefits of Speed Humps/Speed Tables
Speed humps have been shown to reduce speeds between 6 and 13km/h and reduce traffic volumes between 15% and 27% (Source: Canadian Guide to Traffic Calming). Beyond safe speeds, speed humps can improve safe driving behaviour by reducing shortcutting.
Speed humps and tables do not cause damage to vehicles that are travelling at safe speeds. Installation of these measures usually has no impact on parking as drivers can park on top of the speed hump.