\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

\n\nYou are now four times more likely to die in a traffic accident in the United States than in Sweden. But the difference wasn\u2019t always so dramatic. Since the late 1990s, Sweden has employed\u00a0Vison Zero<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>an innovative and holistic traffic safety strategy that’s cut fatalities down to a fraction. \u00a0Due to its uncanny success, Vision Zero is now being adopted in cities throughout the world and most prominently in\u00a0 \u00a0New York City<\/a>.<\/span>\n\nDuring the recent Vision Zero conference, reporter Sarah Goodyear of The Atlanic’s City Lab <\/a>blog talked with Matts-\u00c5ke Belin, one of the plan\u2019s chief architects. It\u2019s an insightful interview<\/a>, well worth the read, but if you don\u2019t have time for 2,000+ words, here\u2019s a few stellar takeaways from Belin:\n
On Activism:<\/h4>\nInstead of relying on experts to legitimize their goals, policy makers view Vision Zero as a political cause, one that protects peoples\u2019 right to travel without injury or death.\n
\u00a0<\/i>\n
The problem is the whole transport sector is quite influenced by the whole utilitarianism mindset. Now we\u2019re bringing in the idea that it\u2019s not acceptable to be killed or seriously injured when you\u2019re transporting. It\u2019s more a civil-rights thing that you bring into the policy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
On The Approach:<\/h4>\nTraditional approaches to traffic safety focus on behavior modification. That\u2019s what checkpoints, traffic laws and PSAs are all about. Vision Zero builds on this by asking the traffic engineer to take equal responsibility. Human beings, by nature, make mistakes and it\u2019s up to the traffic engineer to minimize the consequences. \u00a0For example, replacing chaotic intersections with roundabouts is proven effect at reducing accidents \u2013 why not employ successful designs more often?\n
\u00a0<\/i>\n
Why should we put the whole responsibility on the individual road user, when we know they will talk on their phones, they will do lots of things that we might not be happy about? So let\u2019s try to build a more human-friendly system instead.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nThe heart of Vision Zero calls for reduced traffic speeds — under 30 km\/h (18.6 mph) — where there are high volumes of pedestrians. At that speed, a collisions with an unprotected road users is less likely to become a catastrophe. \u00a0Road design should maximize safety and accessibility for all users.\n
On Speed Cameras:<\/h4>\nIn Sweden, enforcement cameras have been employed widely in both rural and urban environments, but the point isn\u2019t to catch drivers. Swedish officials have been intentionally transparent about the use of surveillance, hoping to encourage drivers to do the right thing. The result? Drivers are traveling slower and not one person has been ticketed.\n
\u00a0<\/i>\n
We put up the cameras on a stretch, and we tell everyone, OK, now you\u2019re going in this area, and in a friendly but firm way we say you have to keep the speed in this area because we have a history of crashes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The Big Takeaway:<\/h4>\nDrivers and pedestrians needn’t be enemies when the goal is better design. Well engineered streets do more than reduce tragedies — they improves quality of life for everyone.\n
\u00a0<\/i>\n
It\u2019s not just about safety, it\u2019s about a livable city in general. To be able to have your kids go to and from school by themselves would be a fantastic thing.<\/p>\nPhoto credit: NYCstreets, creative commons<\/a><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 You are now four times more likely to die in a traffic accident in the United States than in Sweden. But the difference wasn\u2019t always so dramatic. Since the late 1990s, Sweden has employed\u00a0Vison Zero,\u00a0an innovative and holistic traffic safety strategy that’s cut fatalities down to a fraction. \u00a0Due to its uncanny success, Vision Zero is now being adopted … Continue reading “This Swedish Traffic Safety Specialist Says Better Design \u2013 Not More Laws \u2013 Is Key To Saving Lives.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,198],"tags":[81,196,197],"class_list":["post-3513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pedestrian-safety-2","category-road-design","tag-design","tag-vision-zero","tag-matts-ake-belin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}