Analysis of the Factors Influencing Speed Cushion Effectiveness in the Urban Context: A Case Study Experiment in the City of Bari, Italy

The installation of Traffic-Calming Devices (TCDs) is an extremely valuable countermeasure to prevent vulnerable road users from fatalities in urban contexts. Among all the TCDs, Berlin Speed Cushions (BSCs) seem be one most promising because they reduce speeds but do not affect emergency vehicles. However, previous research on BSCs limited and lacks some important aspects, such as analysis at different distances cushion or investigation influence other context variables. In this study, lengths (2.20 m, 2.70 3.20 m) were deployed City Bari three roads belonging same area. To overcome limitations research, recorded using a laser-speed gun before after implementation BSCs, conditions, order take into account effect following factors: time day, day week, average hourly traffic. An ANOVA was performed, with speed dependent variable above-reported factors test site (proxy for length) factors, independently repeated six distance ranges respect cushion. results reveal that evidently decreases immediately (down about 13 km/h) 12 km/h), factor (speed decrease much more evident during morning than evening), length has (the lower longest cushion).