Nature Photography

Photo Essays: Traffic Calming

Do you live on one of those streets where there seems to be no speed limit? So do I.

And, sorry to say, those speed tables further up the street don’t seem to help at all. The speeders slow down enough to go over them without wrecking their suspensions, then it’s off to the races again.

Fortunately, a solution is at hand, and it’s called traffic calming. The goal is to slow or reduce motor vehicle traffic so that pedestrian and bicyclist safety is enhanced. Speaking as someone whose primary means of transportation is a bicycle, I’m very much in favor of traffic calming.

In central Tucson, neighborhoods are adding an artistic touch to the traffic-calming circles that have been installed at street intersections.

Take, for example, this circle at the corner of Edison Street and Vine Avenue in the Jefferson Park Neighborhood. Care for a xeriscape garden in the middle of the street?

Photo Essays - traffic-calming circle with xeriscape garden, Tucson, Arizona

An in-street garden would make me slow my car down for a closer look. (That is, if I had a car!)

This traffic circle also displays the talent of Jefferson Park’s artists…

Photo Essays - traffic-calming circle with sculpture, Tucson, Arizona

The traffic calming circles were designed by Maria Voris, Rosemary Byrd, Matthew Bossler, and Maile Nadlehoffer. Another Jefferson Park neighbor, “Village Blacksmith” Jerry Harris created artwork from the designs. The City of Tucson contributed soil, boulders, and plants.

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