Pittsburgh's Low-Cost Traffic Calming Is a Model for Every City
An example of a traffic calming initiative in Pittsburgh. Image courtesy of the City of Pittsburgh.
Community-driven. Block-by-block. Low cost. This is how Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI) describes its Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program. Rather than waiting on years of studies to prove what any resident can already confidently assert, the city is taking what it knows and applying it where it will work.
Residents can nominate streets for an intervention and the city will evaluate what physical safety measure would be most appropriate for the site. These include raised crosswalks, pedestrian islands, changes to lande widths, chicanes, and most popularly, speed cushions.
The primary goal is to slow down traffic on neighborhood streets. And it’s worked.
An example of a traffic calming initiative in Pittsburgh. Image courtesy of the City of Pittsburgh.
The city has been meticulously documenting how well its interventions have impacted driver speeds and in almost all cases, speeds have slowed by an average of 6 miles per hour. On a 1,000-foot segment of Seagirt Street between Nimick Place to Bennett Street the average speed has dropped 13 miles, from 36 to 23 miles per hour, after the installation of speed humps. The two-way street is flanked on both sides by modest two-story brick homes characteristic of the city and bordered on one end by an early childhood center and playground.
The addition of chicanes on Termon Avenue has lowered vehicle speeds from 37 mph to 27 mph, bringing traffic closer to the posted 25 mph limit. Positioned above the planters within the chicanes, a speed limit sign reminds drivers to ease off the gas. The chicanes give drivers no choice but to slow down.
“The numbers are telling the story of how we are making the neighborhood safer,” Panini Chowdhury, DOMI’s planning manager, said. “We didn’t have to wait for federal money. We just listened to the residents and made some changes to help.”
Chicanes on Termon Ave in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
For these types of “quick build” projects DOMI taps into discretionary funds. In doing so, the agency is signaling that making streets safer actually can come cheap. For the price of a paint can and a couple of hours of labor, city workers can dramatically improve pedestrian visibility at an intersection. In fact that’s what it did across some of the city’s most dangerous intersections. In the Homewood neighborhood, crews adjusted traffic signals to give people on foot more opportunities to cross and more lead time at each crossing. In Highland Park, the city permanently upgraded a previous quick build project: now the bike lanes are protected by concrete, not just demarcated by paint.
The speed at which DOMI acts is helping rebuild trust in neighborhoods that have long urged the city to address the frequency of speeding and crashes. When residents see quick, effective actions, they feel that their government is responsive, accountable, and competent.
In shifting to an approach that acknowledges that safety doesn’t require federal cash, years of studies, and a dead-end public engagement tour that results in more fatigue than progress, Pittsburgh has set a precedent for other cities. And the good news is: virtually any city can tap into its resources and replicate what Pittsburgh is doing.
As Chowdhury told Pittsburgh’s Union Progress: “You don’t always need millions and millions of dollars to improve safety.”
Too often, communities feel stuck—waiting for funding, plans, or approvals while dangerous conditions persist. But Pittsburgh proves don’t need a massive budget or a multi-year capital plan to begin making change. What you do need is a way to focus attention, ask better questions, and start working with what you already have.
That’s exactly what the Crash Analysis Studio offers: a shift away from a system that blames individuals, and toward a practical, repeatable process that helps you identify dangerous patterns, test immediate interventions, and build momentum toward long-term improvements. It’s not about fixing everything at once—it’s about preventing the next crash tomorrow.
The Crash Analysis Studio is a proven tool for identifying unsafe conditions and responding quickly. It's a scalable model that leverages existing resources, engages local voices, and builds momentum toward long-term change. Your role isn’t just to plan—it’s to protect. The tools are in your hands.
Asia (pronounced “ah-sha”) Mieleszko serves as a Staff Writer for Strong Towns. A dilettante urbanist since adolescence, she's excited to convert a lifetime of ad-hoc volunteerism into a career. Her unconventional background includes directing a Ukrainian folk choir, pioneering synaesthetic performances, photographing festivals, designing websites, teaching, and ghostwriting. She can be found wherever Wi-Fi is reliable, typically along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.