The term “Vision Zero” gets bandied about a lot in transportation and urbanist circles, but to the unitiated the concept isn’t necessarily obvious or intuitive just by its name. The goal of it — to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries — is undoubtedly ambitious given the prevailing transportation paradigm in the United States where tens of thousands of people lose their lives to traffic-related incidents every year. People being killed in traffic collisions is so common in this country that it very rarely makes the news on its own terms — it’s only the traffic jams while they clean up the wreckage that garner significant attention.
Vision Zero offers a systematic approach to changing transportation systems to be forgiving to all road users’ fallibilities. Designing safe systems takes time, but if holistically implemented Vision Zero can be very effective in reducing and eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Most transportation agencies will say they have a Vision Zero plan and that they are striving toward that goal, but how they are implementing it really is the determinant of whether or not that goal will be achieved.
Ray Delahanty of City Nerd digs into Vision Zero to explain the ins and outs of it in this video.
Stephen is a professional urban planner in Puget Sound with a passion for sustainable, livable, and diverse cities. He is especially interested in how policies, regulations, and programs can promote positive outcomes for communities. With stints in great cities like Bellingham and Cork, Stephen currently lives in Seattle. He primarily covers land use and transportation issues and has been with The Urbanist since 2014.