Forget Fahrvergnugen. Mt. Lebanon, White Oak and Peters are thinking Verkehrsberuhigung.

Fahrvergnugen is the German word for driving pleasure. Verkehrsberuhigung is German for ''traffic calming," a long-standing European practice of reducing speeding and cut-through traffic by using speed humps, street furniture, wild engineering and other tactics.

It began in the Netherlands in the 1960s, when residents of Delft tired of cars racing through neighborhoods disturbing their quiet way of life. So the town created what people initially called woonerven, or "living yards," by putting trees, tables, benches and sandboxes in the street.

The Dutch government endorsed the trend in 1976 and the practice spread through Germany, Sweden, Denmark, England, France, Japan, Israel, Austria and Switzerland, according to a report by the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Federal Highway Administration.

While street closures and traffic diversions have been part of the scene in the states since the 1940s, real traffic calming measures didn't make inroads until Berkeley, Calif., created a comprehensive program in 1975.

Today, Pittsburgh suburbs are turning to traffic engineers and volunteers to help curb neighborhood speeding and cut-through traffic, which is the practice of impatient drivers taking short-cuts through residential areas. People in Mt. Lebanon have complained to its traffic board and municipal officials. In Peters, people have signed petitions and attended public meetings to ask for help. In some cases, people are taking matters into their own hands, parking on streets to slow traffic and putting fluorescent green signs made in the shape of children in their front yards to remind drivers to cut their speed.

"This is a big concern to people. They want their children to be able to play in their own front yard in safety," Peters Councilman Mike Neville said. "It's the No. 1 complaint that I hear from local residents, and not by a small margin."

Initial studies in Europe indicate traffic calming can lower crash and injury rates from 20 percent to 80 percent, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Another benefit is that traffic calming is considered self-enforcing; traffic can be controlled without a police officer present.

Many people request stop signs to slow traffic but state law prohibits installing stop signs only to control speed. It also is illegal to arbitrarily lower speed limits without meeting specific criteria. Some towns ignore those laws, but that doesn't make it right, said Mark Magalotti, principal with Trans Associates, a transportation engineering firm that works with Mt. Lebanon and Peters.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation assembled a traffic calming handbook to give town officials background and guidelines. The first step is education and enforcement of traffic laws. Drivers may be reminded of rules through brochures or public relations campaigns. Police also can write tickets and warnings. But those measures are not always effective or permanent, which then leads to the third step -- engineering.

Public officials must decide which streets qualify for calming. Some choose to use a point-ranking system. Others choose streets where people are most vocal. PennDOT suggests a structured, documented system, which calls for measures when the average speed is 10 mph over the posted speed or when cut-through traffic is 40 percent of the volume in a studied hour, with a minimum of 100 cut-throughs per hour.

Once the street meets criteria, PennDOT suggests a local committee oversee the project and use neighborhood input.

The key is to do thorough research before implementing anything, Mt. Lebanon Commissioner David Humphreys said. "You may create more hostility than you'll get goodwill," he said.

Magalotti suggests all devices be implemented on a trial basis.

Towns can choose from a toolbox of traffic calming measures.

Speed humps, which are placed horizontally across the road, are three inches high and from 12 feet to 22 feet long. They are different from traditional speed bumps, which are higher and shorter and are designed for traffic going five mph or less, such as in a parking lot. PennDOT discourages communities from using bumps on public roads because they are too jarring. Engineers can choose from several speed hump models, some of which have smooth rises to prevent jostling. Many are marked with signs and paint.

Other tools include street closures; limiting turns; making roads one-way; installing medians, roundabouts or chokers, which are curbs that narrow the lanes; traffic islands; raised crosswalks or intersections that draw attention to pedestrians; traffic circles; or chicanes, which force vehicles to slow while they zig-zag through landscaped areas.

In White Oak, borough officials will be working on a multipronged plan to help deal with speeding and the 22,000-vehicle daily volume on Lincoln Way, the borough's main thoroughfare. Traffic calming also may be used in neighborhood streets that surround Lincoln Way because overflow traffic cuts through there, said Councilman Wayne Washowich Jr., who also is president of White Oak Local Development Corp. A county project could put a small bend in Lincoln Way to force traffic to slow to 25 mph, while bump-outs, or extended curbs, could be placed on residential streets nearby.

Mt. Lebanon's public officials are not sure which streets or methods they'll chose. Humphreys, who represents the 3rd Ward, which includes Mission Hills, said he had been getting many calls from constituents complaining about speeding on Jefferson Drive, with side mirrors getting ripped off and cars sliding into poles.

The topic has been sent to a five-person committee of municipal officials, including Commissioners Humphreys and Barbara Logan, members of the traffic board and police. Humphreys said the municipality was likely to use a model from the State College area of Centre County, where a group of volunteers gathered signatures on petitions, studied traffic patterns and presented data before any mitigation began.

"It involves sitting in a lawn chair and recording license plate numbers to determine who is a resident and who is a cut-through," Humphreys said. He would like to see the first study conducted in late fall with implementation in October.

In Peters, Manager Michael Silvestri said officials were pricing portable speed humps for two streets after people attended public meetings and signed petitions to complain about cut-through traffic and speeding on Thompsonville Road and speeding on East Edgewood Drive. Neville said he hoped to have the project under way this fall.

Some traffic calming measures are in place in Peters. In Great Meadows, township officials required the developer to install traffic islands to slow the flow. In cases where temporary cul-de-sacs have been removed to connect to other streets, Peters officials have asked for landscaped islands. While the fire department and public works have had some problems getting through the area, Silvestri said, the benefits have outweighed the problems.

Magalotti said developing communities had a unique chance to prevent problems before they start, by designing traffic patterns that discourage speeding rather than waiting until after a problem starts and retrofitting the street. Developments can forgo straightaways that encourage a lead foot or use roundabouts instead of intersections, he said.

Some traffic calming devices require no installation, just resourcefulness. For example, allowing on-street parking can help slow traffic. If parking is allowed on both sides of the street, the effect can be like a chicane, because cars must often pull to the side to allow opposing traffic to pass, slowing the entire flow.

Opponents of traffic calming have included fire and emergency services personnel who say such devices slow their response time. But PennDOT says the construction can be modified to be easier for emergency vehicles by building smoother humps with a gentle profile or by building traffic circles with areas for long firetrucks to pass through. Towns also must ensure devices are suitable for people with disabilities, especially those who use wheelchairs or walkers.

Public works crews often worry about snow removal. Magalotti said those problems could be solved with training. Cambridge, Mass., has a successful speed hump program, despite its large annual snowfall, he said.

Other opponents are people who live adjacent to the device, who fear it will be loud when vehicles pass over it or that it will take them longer to get home.

Neville believes public officials must not ignore the problem.

"It's a sad commentary when residents have to put 'slow down' signs in their front yards to protect the children," he said.

PennDOT's traffic calming handbook is available at www.dot.state.pa.us/, then type "traffic calming handbook" into the search field.