Measures designed to reduce vehicle speeds.
Traffic safety and urban design historically centered on automobile efficiency rather than pedestrian safety, where women and children were disproportionately harmed. The framing of safety interventions as 'calming' reflects a 20th-century shift toward human-centered design that was championed by women urbanists and safety advocates.
Use as-is; term is now standard. When discussing origins, acknowledge that pedestrian safety advocacy—led by women—pushed this paradigm shift in traffic engineering.
Women advocates like Barbara Castle (UK) and traffic safety activists in the 1970s–80s pushed for human-centered design. Their work reframed traffic engineering from automobile-first to safety-first.
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