This post was written for The Ground Floor by Robert T. Dunphy, Transportation Consultant and Emeritus Fellow, at the Urban Land Institute.

The back to back blizzards that whacked the Northeast with three feet or more of snow this month, referred to by the media as "Snowpocalypse" and "Snowmageddon," created the largest traffic calming experiment in history, with streets narrowed down to the width of medieval lanes, surfaces covered with snow and ice, and a growing crop of potholes.

While the back to work travel on the main streets was the worst commute in history according to some narrators, local streets, when passable, have become models of driver caution. Traffic engineers' solution to speeding on residential streets involve various "traffic calming" devices; necking down intersections, creating traffic circles, and speed bumps, the latest version of which are more appropriately "speed humps."

None of these fixes has had the extraordinary impact of snow narrowed lanes, at least from my informal survey. Suburban streets built to design standards appropriate for landing airplanes have become skinnied down so much that opposing traffic must stop to allow vehicles through.

But so far, it works--after all there is not much people can do. The lessons for street design are obvious. If the streets are narrow enough to make people a cautious, they will slow down and drive more safely. This simple solution also uses less land, allows greater density of housing, and paves over less earth, which in turn creates more runoff into adjacent streams. It is a good lesson we should remember when the snow melts--whenever that is.