It's hard to parse Laura's letter. First, she makes the assertion that if you attend ANY of the meetings you KNOW that its focus was on  “traffic calming.” I think it is possible that Laura is mistaken. Could the focus have been on safety through traffic calming? 
Planners have their own language that does not always translate well. When that happens some of the public feel purposely misled, reinforced by the fact that government does sometimes mislead people.  There are articles written by planners that address the problem of language. 
Traffic calming is in response to motorists failing to adhere to posted speeds. Many who oppose these efforts instead call for more enforcement. In their view,  speed bumps are for speeders, so just hire more police. Unfortunately, enforcement only works as long as it is regular, a costly proposition. Who watches a neighborhood road at 4am?
No matter what time of day, engineering is always working to keep speeds legal and a legal speed is a safe speed.