To effectively implement traffic calming measures in your neighborhood, it is necessary for the decision-makers to have an understanding of the issues at hand. Before the traffic calming process takes place, the municipality involved should have a traffic calming plan.

Some states already have a traffic calming statewide policy, suggested implementation plan, or handbook to follow. Other states are leaving such a plan up to the local municipalities. In either case, having a plan allows the community and municipality to work together toward a common purpose and to understand the project limitations. Both the Canadian Guide to Neighbourhood Traffic Calming (8) and the ITE guide, Traffic Calming: State of Practice (2) are sound sources for obtaining data on developing a plan in your neighborhood. Pennsylvania is currently developing Pennsylvania's Traffic Calming Handbook (3) which will suggest how local municipalities in Pennsylvania can set up a traffic calming plan.

The following describes some important aspects and orgination of a traffic calming implementation plan for local municipalities.

A couple basic plan options exist, reactive or proactive.

• Reactive: Reactive traffic calming occurs when the plan is organized to respond to citizen and community requests and complaints concerning traffic problems.
• Proactive: Proactive traffic calming occurs when staff identifies problems and addresses the problems prior to the community requesting action.

Within these plans, traffic calming can be implemented as a spot treatment or as an area-wide treatment. (2)

• Spot Treatment: A spot treatment investigates a small area (like a single street) and implement improvements based on data from that local.
• Area-wide Treatment: An area-wide treatment looks at a large area (multiple streets) at once and implement improvements based on the data from the entire area.

Depending on the goals of an individual project and community, spot or area-wide treatment can be employed.

Most traffic calming initiatives are reactive. Communities perceive a problem with their local streets and report it to the municipality.