There are other, safer and more effective ways to slow down traffic. The most effective is a rubber cone on the yellow strip telling people to slow down (or with a sign with the speed limit on it). Being in the middle of the road people are afraid of hitting it so drivers slow down naturally. If they hit the rubber cone the chance of doing any damage to their car, any other property, or even people are very slim. Thus cones have the advantage of being effective in slowing people down WITHOUT the danger inherent in a speed bump. Furthermore because the cone is TALLER then a Speed Bump it is easier and quicker for most people to see (People do NOT tend to drive up to it and "discover" the existence of the cone as their car is reacting to the cone, as opposed to a speed bump which I have hit at the speed limit BEFORE I even realized it was there).
The problems with cones is they will be hit AND then someone has to put them back in place. Generally a member of the neighbor can do that, if the local authorities permit them. In most cases the Local Government wants to control such highway markers and thus prefer Speed bumps to cones for then the government controls the bump and need NOT have to send someone over to review and reset the cone every so many days.
A second problem is many local government (and police officers) rely on traffic tickets as a source of revenue. No Tickets, there is a revenue shortage. Thus a lot of local government want TICKETS given, even if cones will slow down more traffic. Remember Police giving out tickets is a form of MONEY for the local government, while sending someone out to re-set cones every so often is an expenditure of Money.
Speed bumps quickly become unpopular with the locals do to the rough ride they give to people. Local Government know this so often set up Speed Bumps knowing that in about 4-5 years the locals will want the bump OUT, even in areas where speeding is a problem. Thus the local Government like Speed Bumps, they tend NOT to be permanent solutions. On the other hand Cones tend to be popular with the locals. Locals do slow down for cones, but if they miss them (Which occurs rarer then with speed bumps) the affect is no harm to their car and no harm to anyone else. People want to avoid cones 4-5 years later, but do NOT push to have them removed do to the fact the cones are NOT causing them any problems when they drive by the cone (Unlike driving over the bump which can be rough on occupants of the Car).
Just comments about speed bumps, cones are more effective and easy to put back if hit. Cones are the most cost effective speed calming device known. They are cheap (about $100 dollars) take a lot of punishment (can be hit 100s of time and then just set back up) and are effective at slowing down traffic (People slow down to avoid them).
Effective speed calming design contains two elements, first the APPEARANCE that something is unsafe. This appearance is what causes people to slow down. People will travel at the speed they believe is the safe speed for the road they are on, even if that speed is above the posted speed limit (Thus why tickets are such a steady source of income to local government). A good Traffic Calming system gives the appearance of being unsafe but then fulfill the second requirement of being safe. One of the favorite mechanism is extending sidewalks out to the edge of the street. Drivers see the curb and fearing hitting it slow down. Thus in older business districts where you have on street parking, traffic calming involves making the sidewalks at any intersections to include the parking spaces along the road. i.e. the parking spaces end up not only along the sidewalk BUT also between sidewalks in that the sidewalks at the intersections extends past the parking space area right to the edge of the travel lanes of traffic.
Here is a picture of what I mean:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_calmingNote the sidewalk extends out to the street BEYOND the parking spaces. This has the effect of giving drivers the road is narrower then it is and do to that affect drivers naturally slow down. The key to any traffic Calming technique is first to make sure the road is SAFE but also to give the appear acne it is NOT. The later slows down people, the former keeps the road safe. Extended sidewalks are safe for if a car hits them, the drivers know it, but rarely is anyone hurt by hitting the curb. Thus it fulfills BOTH requirements, of being safe AND appearing unsafe. The later makes people slow down. Cones are extremely effective at BOTH, it makes the road look unsafe for drivers are afraid of hitting the cone, but hitting the cone causes minimal damage. More effective then the threat of paint ball. The best solution is getting an engineer to design a proper traffic calming road system but as I said above a lot of local Government want money from tickets more then they want traffic to slow down.
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