Vision Zero is a multi-national road traffic safety project that aims to achieve a roadway system with no fatalities or serious injuries involving road traffic. It started in Sweden and was approved by their parliament in October 1997. 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 between costs and benefits, where a monetary value is placed on life and health, and then that value is used to decide how much money to spend on a road network towards the benefit of decreasing risk.See for example, Ezra Hauer, "Computing what the Public wants: Some issues in road safety cost-benefit analysis", Accident Analysis and Prevention, January 2011
Vision Zero was introduced in 1995. It has been variously adopted in different countries or smaller jurisdictions, although its description varies significantly.
Principles
Vision Zero is based on an underlying ethical principle that "it can never be ethically acceptable that people are killed or seriously injured when moving within the road transport system". In most road transport systems, road users bear complete responsibility for safety. Vision Zero changes this relationship by emphasizing that responsibility is shared by transportation system designers and road users.
Speed limits 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". These speeds are based on human and automobile limits. For example, the human tolerance for a pedestrian hit by a well-designed car is approximately . 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 . Similarly, for occupants, the maximum inherent safe speed of well-designed cars can be anticipated to be a maximum of in frontal impacts, and in side impacts. Speeds over can be tolerated if the infrastructure is designed to prevent frontal and side impacts. + Possible maximum travel speeds Type of infrastructure and traffic Possible travel speed (km/h)Locations with possible conflicts between pedestrians and carsIntersections with possible side impacts between carsRoads with possible frontal impacts between cars, including rural roadsRoads with no possibility of a side impact or frontal impact (only impact with the infrastructure)+
"Roads with no possibility of a side impact or frontal impact" are sometimes designated as Type 1 ( motorways/freeways/Autobahns ), Type 2 ("2+2 roads") or Type 3 ("2+1 roads"). 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 quite dangerous even with speed limits that appear low by comparison. In 2010, German rural roads, which are generally limited to , had a fatality rate of 7.7 deaths per billion-travel-kilometers, higher than the 5.2 rate on urban streets (generally limited to ), and far higher than the autobahn rate of 2.0; autobahns carried 31% of motorized road traffic while accounting for 11% of Germany's traffic deaths.
A movement to reduce speed limits in residential areas to called "20's Plenty for Us" or "20 is Plenty" started gathering steam in the early 2000s in the United Kingdom. It spread to the United States in 2010.
Implementation
Canada In December 2015, the Canadian injury prevention charity Parachute presented the Vision Zero concept, with Road Safety Strategist Matts Belin of Sweden, to nearly 100 road safety partners.
In November 2016, Parachute hosted a one-day national road safety conference focused on Vision Zero goals and strategies, attended by leaders in health, traffic engineering, police enforcement, policy and advocacy.
From that, the Parachute Vision Zero Network was formed, comprising more than 250 road safety advocates and practitioners, law enforcement, government and municipalities. The network serves to provide a one-stop Canadian destination to connect these stakeholders with one other, and with information and resources to help communities address road safety challenges, using proven solutions.
The second Parachute Vision Zero Summit was held in October 2017, attended by network members and politicians, including Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca.
Another organization, Vision Zero Canada, launched their national campaign in December 2015.
Canadian cities that have taken steps include: Brantford, Ontario: A commitment to implementing Vision Zero principles in street planning. Edmonton: On 22 September 2015 Edmonton City Council announced that it was "the 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 2) collisions at intersections. Hamilton: A commitment to work toward Vision Zero, though funding priorities were criticized by road safety advocates as "fluff" due to a focus on elements such as public education and highways rather than cycling and pedestrian infrastructure improvements or speed limit changes. Kitchener: Formal adoption by city council of a Vision Zero strategy in 2020. North Bay, Ontario: Creation in 2018 of a city council-endorsed North Bay Vision Zero Committee to advise the city's Engineering Department. Ottawa: On 5 July 2017, Ottawa ordered its transportation committee to produce a report with an updated action plan using principles set out in Vision Zero. Surrey: On 27 November 2017, Public Safety Committee endorsed adoption of the Vision Zero philosophy as a basis for Surrey's Safe Mobility Plan. Toronto: On 13 June 2016 Toronto Mayor John Tory announced a plan to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured in traffic by 20 per cent within a decade. In 2019, City Council followed up on this initial effort by passing "Vision Zero 2.0", bringing in additional measures like reduced speed limits and automated enforcement. Vancouver: On 5 April 2016 Vancouver City Council endorsed Vision Zero by directing staff to report back on a strategy for zero traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries. On 7 September 2018, the City of Vancouver and Hackworks ran a hackathon focused on the Vision Zero Concept. Winnipeg: On July 21, 2022, Winnipeg City Council approved its Road Safety Strategic Action Plan.
India
Haryana became the first state in India to officially adopt vision zero approach. by launching the Haryana Vision Zero program in 2017. The chief minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, launched the program on 3 May 2017. The program initially covered 10 districts of Haryana and saw positive results. It has now been expanded to all the districts of the state with positive impact.
Netherlands In the Netherlands, the sustainable safety approach 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 easy to use and navigate, it being self-evident to road users where they should be and how they should behave.J. Theeuwes and H. Godthelp, "Self-explaining roads," Saf. Sci., vol. 19, no. 2–3, pp. 217–225, 1995 The Dutch also prevent dangerous differences in mass, speeds and/or directions from mixing. Roundabouts create crossings on an otherwise 50 or road that are slow enough, , to permit pedestrians and cyclists to cross in safety. Mopeds, cyclists and pedestrians are kept away from cars on separate paths above 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 inevitable does occur, principles which are at the core of both the Dutch and Swedish policies.
Germany As early as 2008, the German Social Accident Insurance's prevention strategy took up the goal of making working and living environments safer.{https://www.dguv.de/en/prevention/visionzero/index.jsp}
New Zealand In July 2019, the Sixth Labour Government released its "Road to Zero" 2020-2030 road safety strategy, which proposed reducing speed limits and installing more road safety features. It was modelled after the Vision Zero road-toll reduction movement. The Road to Zero strategy was adopted in 2020. In February 2022, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and the New Zealand Police launched a public awareness campaign to promote Road to Zero. Waka Kotahi also announced a review of speed limits and tightened speed limit rules around schools.
In March 2024, the Sixth National Government confirmed that it would be fulfilling its pre-election promise of reversing the previous Labour Government's speed limit reductions. These policies have included raising speed limits by 20 km/h, introducing variable speed limits for school zones and assessing speed limit changes against both safety and economic criteria.
Sweden In 1997 the Swedish Parliament introduced a "Vision Zero" policy that requires that fatalities and serious injuries are reduced to zero by 2020. This is a significant step-change in transport policy at the European level. All new roads are built to this standard and older roads are modified. Vision Zero also incorporated other countermeasures targeting drivers and vehicles. It is worth noting that Sweden's road death toll was declining prior to 1997 and continued to do so under Vision Zero. However, the number of deaths has not improved since 2013.
+ Fatalities in Sweden Source: EurostatVictims in road accidents by NUTS 2 regions (tran_r_acci) in Sweden
United Kingdom