Slowth

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Slowth is a transport planning concept, usually deployed in congested urban environments, where transport is calibrated for lower top speeds, but the result is shorter overall travel times across the entire system.[1]

The concept of slowth is sometimes compared to the story of The Tortoise and the Hare, to demonstrate that slowing the overall speed of transport will allow more people to get to their destinations quicker. An example is that where there is traffic congestion, a bicycle will get to its destination quicker than a Ferrari sports car. When a city adopts slowth, the top speed will be lower, but congestion is decreased because the slower speed results in steadier traffic flows.[1]

This is a powerful model which urban planners and traffic engineers, with a few notable exceptions, are only recently starting to take seriously. Also referred to as "slow transport".

In Chapter 10 on speed limits in towns in the report [Speed Control and Transport Policy] (PSI 1996) Mayer Hillman and Stephen Plowden describe an experiment in Växjö, a Swedish town of 70,000 popn, which showed very small time penalties arising from some fairly substantial speed reductions at 20 junctions . The Swedish researchers used the results to simulate what would happen if similar speed-reducing measures were introduced at 111 junctions throughout the town and concluded that there would probably be a small net time saving. [2]

[edit] Proponents

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Disappearing traffic? the story so far. London: Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Municipal Engineer, Paper 1272, March
  • The paradox of congestion., Wood, K (2007). In IPENZ Transportation Group Conference, Tauranga, New Zealand 10-10-2007
  • Speed Control and Transport Policy, Policy Studies Institute, London, 1966. Mayer Hillman and Stephen Plowden
  1. ^ a b Gutman, Manisha. "The greening of Paris", The Hindu, 2008-02-03. Retrieved on 2008-03-08. (English) 
  2. ^ Effekten av Generell Hastighetsdampningt i Tatort - C Hyden, K Odelid, and A Varhelyi. Lund Institutionen for Trafikteknik, Pub: 1992