AbstractThe objective of this paper is to assess the significance of urban traffic calming and to get an insight into the safety impacts of local and area-wide traffic calming interventions enabling a better understanding and therefore ‘better-informed’ decisions on different schemes. Safety effects of traffic calming initiatives have been analysed on a city-level for larger Hungarian cities and an in-depth research has also been carried out for a more detailed case from the capital of Hungary. Results show that traffic calming initiatives have a very significant role in enhancing road safety of urban areas. Meanwhile the case study of Budapest explains observed effects in detail allowing for more accurate appraisal tools to be developed.