A chicane is a serpentine curve in a road, added by design rather than dictated by geography. Chicanes add extra turns and are used both in motor racing and on roads and streets to slow traffic for safety. For example, one form of chicane is a short, shallow S-shaped turn that requires the driver to turn slightly left and then slightly right to continue on the road, requiring the driver to reduce speed. The word chicane is derived from the French verb chicaner, which means "to create difficulties" or "to dispute pointlessly", "quibble", which is also the root of the English noun chicanery. The Spanish verb chicanear also means "to use trickery".
The Casio Triangle chicane on the Suzuka International Racing Course
A chicane used for traffic calming
Another type of traffic calming chicane
Chicane to prevent pedestrians from carelessly running across the track.
Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, car drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. It has become a tool to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers in the neighbourhoods. It aims to encourage safer, more responsible driving and potentially reduce traffic flow. Urban planners and traffic engineers have many strategies for traffic calming, including narrowed roads and speed humps. Such measures are common in Australia and Europe, but less so in North America. Traffic calming is a calque of the German word Verkehrsberuhigung – the term's first published use in English was in 1985 by Carmen Hass-Klau.
Two traffic calming measures on a road in England: speed cushions (the two reddish pads in the road) and a curb extension (marked by the black posts and white stripes)
Signing indicating that a motorist is approaching traffic calming devices
Traffic calming roundabout and rainwater-harvesting infrastructure in Tucson, Arizona
Construction of polymer cement overlay to change asphalt to brick texture and colour to indicate a high-traffic pedestrian crossing