Vision Zero
Vision Zero is a multi-national road traffic safety project that aims to achieve a highway system with no fatalities or serious injuries involving road traffic. It commenced in Sweden and was approved by their parliament in October 1997. [1] A core principle of the vision is that ‘Life and health can never be exchanged for other benefits within the society’ rather than the more conventional comparison inbetween costs and benefits, where a monetary value is placed on life and health, and then that value is used to determine how much money to spend on a road network towards the benefit of decreasing how much risk. [Two]
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Vision Zero is based on an underlying ethical principle that “it can never be ethically acceptable that people are killed or gravely injured when moving within the road transport system.” [Four] As an ethics-based treatment, Vision Zero functions to guide strategy selection and not to set particular goals or targets. In most road transport systems, road users bear finish responsibility for safety. Vision Zero switches this relationship by emphasizing that responsibility is collective by transportation system designers and road users. [Four]
Vision Zero suggests the following “possible long term maximum travel speeds related to the infrastructure, given best practice in vehicle design and 100% restraint use”. [Five] These speeds are based on human and automobile thresholds. For example, the human tolerance for a pedestrian hit by a well-designed car is approximately thirty km/h. If a higher speed in urban areas is desired, the option is to separate pedestrian crossings from the traffic. If not, pedestrian crossings, or zones (or vehicles), must be designed to generate speeds of a maximum of thirty km/h. Similarly, the inherent safety of well-designed cars can be anticipated to be a maximum of seventy km/h in frontal impacts, and fifty km/h in side impacts. Speeds over one hundred km/h can be tolerated if the infrastructure is designed to prevent frontal and side impacts.
“Roads with no possibility of a side influence or frontal influence” are sometimes designated as Type one ( motorways/freeways/Autobahns ), Type two (“Two+Two roads”) or Type three (“Two+1 roads”). [7] These roadways have crash barriers separating opposing traffic, limited access, grade separation and prohibitions on slower and more vulnerable road users. Undivided rural roads can be fairly dangerous even with speed thresholds that show up low by comparison. In 2010, German rural roads, which are generally limited to one hundred km/h (62 mph), had a fatality rate of 7.7 deaths per billion-travel-kilometers, higher than the Five.Two rate on urban streets (generally limited to fifty km/h (31 mph)), and far higher than the autobahn rate of Two.0; autobahns carried 31% of motorized road traffic while accounting for 11% of Germany’s traffic deaths. [8]
Canada Edit
On September 22, two thousand fifteen Edmonton City Council announced that it was “the very first Canadian city to officially adopt Vision Zero.” Its Road Safety Strategy 2016-2020 moves “towards zero fatal and major-injury collisions” but does not include a target of zero deaths or major injuries. The targets for the strategy are decreased rates of 1) overall injury collisions, and Two) collisions at intersections. [9] The national advocacy campaign Vision Zero Canada (visionzero.ca) was launched in December 2015. [Ten] On June 13, two thousand sixteen Toronto Mayor John Tory announced a plan to reduce the number of people killed and gravely injured in traffic by twenty per cent within a decade. In the face of public outcry, he recanted later in the day, and agreed to strive for zero deaths within five years. [11] On April Five, two thousand sixteen Vancouver City Council endorsed Vision Zero by directing staff to report back on a strategy for zero traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries. [12] On July Five, 2017, Ottawa ordered its transportation committee to produce a report with an updated activity plan using principles set out in Vision Zero. [13]
Netherlands Edit
In the Netherlands, the sustainable safety treatment differs from Vision Zero in that it acknowledges that in the majority of accidents humans are to blame, and that roads should be designed to be “self-explaining” thus reducing the likelihood of crashes. Self-explaining roads are effortless to use and navigate, it being self-evident to road users where they should be and how they should behave. [14] The Dutch also prevent dangerous differences in mass, speeds and/or directions from mixing. Roundabouts create crossings on an otherwise fifty or seventy km/h road that are slow enough, thirty km/h, to permit pedestrians and cyclists to cross in safety. Mopeds, cyclists and pedestrians are kept away from cars on separate paths above thirty km/h in the built up area. Buses are also often given dedicated lanes, preventing their large mass from conflicting with low mass ordinary cars.
More recently the Dutch have introduced the idea that roads should also be “forgiving”, i.e. designed to lessen the outcome of a traffic collision when the unavoidable does occur, principles which are at the core of both the Dutch and Swedish policies. [15]
Sweden Edit
In one thousand nine hundred ninety seven the Swedish Parliament introduced a “Vision Zero” policy that requires that fatalities and serious injurious are diminished to zero by 2020. This is a significant step switch in transport policy at the European level. [ citation needed ] All fresh roads are built to this standard and older roads are modified. [ citation needed ]
United Kingdom Edit
Transport appraisal in the United Kingdom is based on Fresh Treatment to Appraisal which was very first published in one thousand nine hundred ninety eight and updated in 2007. In two thousand six the Stockholm Environment Institute wrote a report at the request of the UK Department for Transport titled ‘Vision zero: Adopting a Target of Zero for Road Traffic Fatalities and Serious Injuries’. [16] In two thousand eight the Road Safety Foundation published a report proposing on UK road safety which referenced Vision Zero. [15] The Campaign for Safe Road Design is a partnership inbetween thirteen UK major road safety stakeholders that is calling for the UK Government to invest in a safe road infrastructure which in their view could cut deaths on British roads by 33%. [ citation needed ] In two thousand seven Blackpool was the very first British City to announce a vision zero target. In two thousand fourteen Brighton & Hove adopted vision zero in its ‘Safer Roads’ strategy, predicated on the safe systems treatment, alongside the introduction of an ISO accredited road traffic safety management system to ISO:39001. Edinburgh adopted a Road Safety Act Plan: Working Towards Vision Zero in May two thousand ten which “commits to providing a safe and modern road network where all users are safe from the risk of being killed or earnestly injured”. [17] Northern Ireland’s DOE has a Share the road to zero” policy for zero deaths. Bristol adopted a safe systems treatment in March 2015. Transport For London (TfL) say they are working towards zero KSI. UK Vision Zero campaigns include Vision Zero London and Vision Zero UK. A Vision Zero UK all day conference is planned for nineteen January two thousand sixteen at Camden Town Hall with Landor LINKS conferences.
United States Edit
- Chicago: In May 2012, the “Chicago Forward Activity Agenda Plan” was introduced aiming to reduce transport deaths to zero in ten years [Legal]
- San Francisco: In January 2014, San Francisco District Supervisors Jane Kim, Norman Yee, and John Avalos introduced Vision Zero plan for San Francisco, where there were twenty five pedestrian and bicyclist deaths in two thousand thirteen alone. San Francisco’s Vision Zero plan calls for investing in engineering, enforcement, and education, and focusing on dangerous intersections. [Nineteen]
- Fresh York City: In January 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced adoption of Fresh York City’s Vision Zero and enumerated a long list of initiatives the city would be following to reduce fatalities on city streets. Among the measures it plans to take includes pushing for switches in the State legislature to permit the city more control in the administration of traffic safety measures such as speed reduction. [20]
- Boston: In March 2014, Boston individual injury attorney John Sheehan began the Vision Zero Auto Accident Prevention Scholarship to encourage youthful adults to consider the tangible benefits of safer driving. The stiff hopes that the scholarship will open a dialogue with the City of Boston to implement Vision Zero policies. The law school scholarship looks at an applicants driving record in addition to a brief essay to determine selection of the winner. [21] Boston launched Vision Zero in December two thousand fifteen [22]
- Los Angeles: In September 2014, Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation released a strategic plan with a Vision Zero aim to eliminate all traffic deaths by 2025. [23][24]
- Austin: In November 2014, the Austin City Council voted unanimously to form a Vision Zero Task Force to develop an activity plan to direct City departments toward policies aligned with safer roadways. [25][26]
- San Mateo: In February 2015, the San Mateo City Council passed a Sustainable Streets Plan that includes Vision Zero. [27][28]
- Portland: In February 2015, Portland’s Director of Transportation Leah Treat announced a ten-year plan to end traffic fatalities in the city as part of the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s 2-year work plan. [29][30]
- Seattle: Seattle’s vision zero plan is to end traffic deaths and serious injuries by two thousand thirty [31]
- San Jose: On May 12, 2015, San Jose’s 11-member City Council unanimously adopted Vision Zero San Jose [32]
- Santa Barbara: In May 2015, the Santa Barbara City Council embraced the objective of zero traffic fatalities within city boundaries. [33]
- San Diego: On June 22, 2015, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced his support for Vision Zero at a press conference with Mayor Pro Tem Marti Emerald and Council Member Mark Kersey [34]
- Washington, D.C.: In December 2015, Washington, D.C.’s Department of Transportation announced an initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities. This initiative was endorsed by Mayor Murlel Bowser. Press coverage has focused on high traffic fines (up to $1,000) for speeding. [35]
- Fort Lauderdale: In November 2015, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission passed Vision Zero Fort Lauderdale to commit to reduce all pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities to zero. In passing Vision Zero Fort Lauderdale, the City has become the very first City in the state of Florida and the very first City in the Southeastern United States to become a Vision Zero City. [36]
EuroRAP Edit
Across Europe EuroRAP, the European Road Assessment Programme is bringing together a partnership of motoring organisations, vehicle manufacturers and road authorities to develop protocols for identifying and communicating road accident risk and to develop implements and best practice guidelines for engineering safer roads. [37] EuroRAP aims to support governments in meeting their Vision Zero targets. [ citation needed ]
The “Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area” issued in two thousand eleven by the European Commission states in point Two.Five (9): “By 2050, budge close to zero fatalities in road transport. In line with this purpose, the EU aims at halving road casualties by 2020.” [38]
United Nations Edit
The United Nations has more modest goals. Its “Decade of Act for Road Safety” is founded on a aim to “stabilize and then reduce” road traffic fatalities by 2020. It established the Road Safety Fund “to encourage donor, private sector and public support for the implementation of a Global Plan of Act. [39]
Despite some countries borrowing some ideas from the Vision Zero project, it has been noted that the richer countries have been making outstanding progress in reducing traffic deaths while the poorer countries tend to see an increase in traffic fatalities due to enhanced motorization. [Trio]