Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. First implemented in Sweden in the 1990s, Vision Zero has proved successful across Europe — and now it’s gaining momentum in major American cities.
Each year, more than 42,000 people — the population of a small city — are needlessly killed on American streets and thousands more are injured. We call this suffering traffic “accidents” — but, in reality, we have the power to prevent traffic collisions.
For too long, we’ve considered traffic deaths and severe injuries to be inevitable side effects of modern life. While often referred to as “accidents,” the reality is that we can prevent these tragedies by taking a proactive, preventative approach that prioritizes traffic safety as a public health issue.
The significant loss of life exacts a tragic toll, extending beyond personal loss to deep community impacts, including: personal economic costs and emotional trauma to those suffering; and significant taxpayer spending on emergency response and long-term healthcare costs. And because so many fear for their safety on our streets, there is no true freedom of mobility, and, as a result, we compromise our public health with increasing rates of sedentary diseases and higher carbon emissions.
VISION ZERO
Traffic deaths are PREVENTABLE
Integrate HUMAN FAILING in approach
Prevent FATAL AND SEVERE CRASHES SYSTEMS approach
Saving lives is NOT EXPENSIVE
TRADITIONAL APPROACH
Traffic deaths are INEVITABLE
PERFECT human behaviour
Prevent COLLISIONS
INDIVIDUAL responsibility
Saving lives is EXPENSIVE
Vision Zero is a significant departure from the status quo in two major ways:
Vision Zero recognizes that people will sometimes make mistakes, so the road system and related policies should be designed to ensure those inevitable mistakes do not result in severe injuries or fatalities. This means that system designers and policymakers are expected to improve the roadway environment, policies (such as
speed management), and other related systems to lessen the severity of crashes.
Vision Zero is a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together diverse and necessary stakeholders to address
this complex problem. In the past, meaningful, cross-disciplinary collaboration among local traffic planners and engineers, policymakers, and public health professionals has not been the norm. Vision Zero acknowledges that many factors contribute to safe
mobility — including roadway design, speeds, behaviors, technology, and policies — and sets clear goals to achieve the shared goal of zero fatalities and severe injuries
With the production of its maximum safety articles, Takler promotes the Vision Zero project.
“Zero Victims” is the one objective which must be reached, and to do so no collision can be tolerated.
