Background Traffic calming interventions attempt to reduce accidents, improve mobility of users and enhance the liveability of the local environment. Speed limit reductions and adaptation of the infrastructure are some actions frequently implemented. Results of these types of interventions can be explored by analysing users’ opinions, such as their needs and preferences before, during and after the intervention.

Methods A survey was performed to explore the effects on infrastructure remodelling of the Cartuja Campus at the University of Granada in Spain. Habits, opinions and attitudes from a total population of 21,892 users were collected. A total of 393 users from a stratified random sample took part in this study. The user groups included were: “residents on campus”, “workers of nearby shops”, “students”, “teaching and research staff”, “administration and service workers”, and “parents and teachers of a school located on the campus”. A questionnaire was used to collect the users’ opinions in four basic areas: mobility, environment, safety and informing users about the objectives of the engineering works.

Results Results found that the following issues were considered to be very important and necessary for the user: an improvement of fluidity and functionality of public transport, accessibility to the campus for both pedestrians and vehicles, perceived road safety conditions and usability of the campus. However, users considered themselves to be poorly or not informed regarding the aims, planning and developing of the engineering works, and during the implementation of works, 22.1% of them reported to have changed their mean of transportation as a result of that engineering activity. The key groups affected by the changes were students, campus workers and users of the school.

Conclusions This current survey, taking place during the engineering interventions, will subsequently serve as baseline for the second phase once the infrastructure remodelling work in completed. In particular it will analyse the impact on mobility of the Campus Cartuja remodelling, evaluate the success of the “traffic calming” measures, and investigate if healthy mobility has been successfully encouraged. From these combined results, implications about road design and planning will be derived, as well as additional suggestions for improving traffic calming: these will be reported back to the infrastructure designers and used to further refine the infrastructure changes.