So "traffic calming" = congestion, frustration, and dangerous driving for bikes and cars. Not a great idea in my book to spend more money (and have a higher continued upkeep cost) to make the roads more dangerous and less useful. I suppose if they put an island there then they understand the snow is going to get piled on it and then expand into the rest of the road, right?
Where I live they recently installed some new intersections that are now sharp corners and they're now really dangerous for everyone. You need to go so slow to make the turns that nearly everyday I see accidents that are narrowly avoided. They don't "calm traffic" instead they just make it congested which means it's dangerous for people in cars, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
Fair enough. Pedestrian-friendly remodeling of intersections is also being done here in Europe, but AFAIK always by widening up the entire intersection and sacrificing parking space. This is IMO a sensible approach, since parked cars are dead space and thus should be absent from a busy intersection.
