Making Our Roadways Safer for You

Baltimore City uses traffic calming to improve safety and support its goal of reducing serious traffic injuries and deaths. Streets are designed for everyone not just people in cars. That includes children walking to school, older adults, people with disabilities, cyclists, bus riders, and drivers.

Before making changes, the city studies factors such as:
- Vehicle speeds
- Traffic volumes
- Crash history
- Nearby schools, parks, transit stops, and community destinations
- Input from residents and community organizations

Each street is different, so the city chooses solutions that best match the location and safety needs.

bus lane in Baltimore City

Traffic Calming Program Vision + Where We Are Now 

Vision: The Baltimore City Traffic Calming Program establishes a consistent, data-driven process for identifying, prioritizing, designing, and delivering traffic calming improvements while increasing public transparency through a new website, project dashboard, and annual implementation schedule.

Where we are now: The focus for 2026 is to identify the projects that we will be focusing on to clear the backlog. 

What Traffic Calming Is

Traffic calming is a way to make streets safer for everyone. It uses street design to encourage drivers to slow down, pay attention, and share the road with people walking, biking, using wheelchairs, taking transit, or driving.

The goal is not to stop traffic. The goal is to make travel safer and more comfortable while helping people get where they need to go.

Examples of traffic calming include:
Speed humps that encourage lower driving speeds

  • Curb extensions that shorten the distance people have to walk when crossing the street
  • High-visibility crosswalks that make pedestrians easier to see
  • Traffic circles at some intersections that help reduce crashes
  • Narrower travel lanes that encourage careful driving
  • Pedestrian refuge islands that give people a safe place to pause while crossing

These kinds of improvements are often used near schools, parks, neighborhoods, and places where many people walk or bike.

What Traffic Calming Isn't

Many people think traffic calming is just speed humps or speed cameras, but it is much more than that.

Traffic calming is not one specific tool or device. Speed humps are just one type of traffic calming, and speed cameras are an enforcement tool.

Speed cameras encourage people to follow the speed limit by issuing tickets to drivers who are speeding. Traffic calming, on the other hand, changes the design of the street so that safer driving feels more natural.

Traffic calming is also not the same as traffic enforcement. Police officers, speed cameras, and traffic tickets enforce traffic laws. Traffic calming changes the street itself so safer driving becomes the natural choice.

Traffic Calming Dashboard

Eligibility and Prioritization

View of intersection in Baltimore City

DOT continuously identifies locations that may benefit from traffic calming. Each year, traffic engineers and urban planners review locations across the city and prioritize them based on several factors. 

Residents can request traffic calming through 311. However, submitting a 311 request does not guarantee that a location will be studied or receive a traffic calming device.  

Locations are evaluated based on: 

  • Whether the street is a local or neighborhood connecting  road
  • Number of traffic collisions
  • Severity of traffic collisions
  • Community input (311 service requests)
  • Proximity to schools, parks, bus stops, and other community locations 
  • Whether the place is in an area that needs more help and resources.

Some factors, such as number of accidents and severity, have higher weight than others. Each location receives a score based on these factors. Higher-scoring locations move forward in the review process

Review Process and Timeline

Traffic calming projects take time to plan and review. Explore the steps involved, from request and evaluation to design, approval, and installation.
Get to Know the Process

Request Traffic Calming

Concerned about speeding or traffic safety on your street? Submit a request through 311 to have potential traffic calming measures evaluated.
Submit a Request

Frequently Asked Questions

My street was not prioritized for traffic calming; can I request a reassessment? 

You can send another traffic request through 311. But if you already sent one, DOT has already looked at it. It may not have been picked because other locations needed help more. Sending the same request again will not change the decision because every request is reviewed the same way. 

Will there be a public meeting for my project? 

Public meetings usually occur if the project scope makes changes to parking or traffic operations (one-way conversions, diverters, etc.)  

Traffic Calming Request are submitted to us by your neighbors and fellow residents.  

DOT will always inform the public of changes to roadways but reserves the right to make safety improvements which have been deemed necessary, and which will be beneficial to the greater good, even without input from the public.  

Will a traffic calming project affect parking? 

Some traffic calming projects may reduce on-street parking, depending on the type of work being done. Most projects with speed humps or speed tables do not change on-street parking, and drivers can park on top of a speed hump or speed table. 

During construction, parking may be temporarily limited or not allowed. If this happens, temporary No Parking signs will be posted before the work begins

Can a stop sign be installed to slow people down? 

No. The MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices) states that stop signs shall not be used as a means of traffic calming/speed reductions. Stop signs shall be used to designate right-of-way. 

However, missing stop signs can be reported to 311. 

How do speed humps/tables/cushions affect emergency services and transit? 

Speed humps and speed tables may slow emergency vehicles and buses by only a few seconds. On roads that emergency vehicles use most often, DOT installs speed tables instead of speed humps. Speed tables have a flat top that helps slow cars while making it easier for fire trucks, ambulances, and buses to drive over them. 

How long does it take to install a traffic calming device? 

This would depend on the device. Locations that get released to the public are shared in October, but the installation season runs from March to November when the weather is warm. More complex devices can take significantly longer to install than quick build solutions like speed humps. Check the dashboard to understand the status of selected projects.