Speed Cushion Project

A photo of a street with a set of three speed cushions installed across the travel lanes.

Speed Cushions installed on Robie Street in 2022

Speed cushions are a traffic calming measure used within the municipality to encourage slower speeds of travel. Like a speed table or speed hump, speed cushions are a raised area of a roadway which causes the vertical upward movement of travelling vehicles – causing discomfort to drivers traveling at higher speeds. Speed cushions differ from speed tables or speed humps by including a channel design for larger vehicles such as emergency services vehicles or transit buses, to pass through with minimal impact.

The municipality installed the first  speed cushions along Robie Street in 2022 as a pilot project. The installation resulted in overall speed reductions. The municipality’s Traffic Management team continues to monitor all speed cushion locations and collect feedback from key partners to further inform development standards for future projects.

 

 

How to navigate speed cushions

As a passenger vehicle driver

Drivers should treat speed cushions as they would speed humps or speed tables and slow down. The wheel track of a passenger vehicle, like a sedan or SUV, are too narrow to utilize the channels and as such must traverse over the speed cushion.

As a cyclist

Cyclists can choose to ride over the speed cushion or avoid them entirely by traveling through the channels.

As an emergency services vehicle, bus or other large vehicle

Vehicles such as transit buses or fire trucks can utilize the channels to drive through the speed cushion with minimal impact.

Are there impacts to on-street parking?

There is no impact to on-street parking and vehicles are allowed to park on speed cushions.

 

 

Site selection for speed cushions

Speed cushions are prioritized for use on streets that may have increased frequency of larger vehicles such as emergency services vehicles and buses. Site conditions must be carefully reviewed when selecting locations for speed cushions – not all roadways are suitable for this traffic calming measure. The following conditions are used to help evaluate if a street may be suitable for speed cushions:

  • relatively flat – speed cushions cannot be safely placed on hills;
  • should avoid intersections and driveways;
  • cannot cover hardware in the street;
  • must be visible around curves; and
  • spacing of speed cushions should be consistent along the corridor where possible.
Photo showing an installed speed cushion with level channel for emergency response vehicles clearly visible between the humps. Each hump has a white arrow on it pointing in the direction of traffic.

Example of a speed cushion, clearly showing the level channel between humps for larger vehicles.

Current speed cushion project sites

Installation between Oceanview School and Shore Roads starting during construction season 2024.

Aerial map of Caldwell Road showing proposed locations for new speed cushions between Oceanview School Road and Thorncrest Court (two cushions) and Thorncrest Court and just after Seabreeze Drive (three cushions) - Map one of two

Caldwell Road speed cushion 2024 proposed installation locations map one of two

Aerial map of Caldwell Road showing proposed locations for three new speed cushions starting just before Murray Road through until shortly beyond Himmelman Drive.

Caldwell Road speed cushion 2024 proposed installation locations map two of two

Installation between Wells and Stairs Streets completed 2022.

Project map showing locations of speed humps between Wells and Sebastian Streets, Sebastian and Cabot Streets, Cabot and Merkel Streets, Merkel and Columbus Streets, Columbus and Stanley Streets and Stanley and Stairs Streets.

Robie Street speed cushion 2022 project map.