Vision Zero – Implementing a policy for traffic safety

The scope of this paper is to outline, in a general way, the safety philosophy inherent in present road- and street design, trace the origin of this philosophy, and to present the principles for a new design of streets and roads. It will be argued that deficiencies in the present road design philosophy are the main cause of the global road safety crisis, clearly indicating its man-made nature. A brief description is made of the decision process leading to the establishment of Vision Zero as Sweden's Traffic Safety Policy in 1997. Following an analysis of the problem, suggestions are made for finding solutions. The solutions are based on some of the principles in Vision Zero. They include a new basic mechanism for creating error-tolerance in the road system, and new design principles for road- and street design. The tradition of "blaming the victim" is hereby questioned and focus is put on the need for professionals to act based on these new standards. During the last 10 years the fatalities in Sweden have dropped from approximately 550/year to 450/year. Roads redesigned with median barriers have an 80% reduction in fatalities. Streets with 30 km/h design speed show similar results. This indicates that measures derived from Vision Zero strategy are effective but that large scale implementation has not yet been done.