Vision Zero distinguishes itself from traditional road safety approaches by focusing solely on fatalities and serious injuries, drilling down on those issues through acknowledgment of human error and the sharing of road system responsibility between users, designers and decision-makers who influence the planning, design, operation and maintenance of the road transportation system. Vision Zero has emerged as a new perspective on road safety—intended to address traffic fatalities and serious injuries as a public health issue.

The main pillars of Vision Zero include:

• Zero is the only acceptable number of deaths within our transportation systems.
• Humans fail, design shouldn’t. System designers are responsible for the design, operation and use of the road transport system and are thereby responsible for the level of safety within the entire system. Road users are responsible for following the road transport system rules set by its designers. If users fail to comply with these rules due to a lack of knowledge, acceptance or ability, the system designers are required to take the necessary further steps to counteract people being killed or injured.
• Collaboration between various levels of government, public services, private industries and other road managers is the key to successful implementation.
• Collaboration with police, health/rescue, road users and society in general is essential.
• The advancement of Vision Zero must focus and rely on evidence-based practice.

WSP’s experience with Vision Zero work has positioned the firm to assist municipalities around the world in achieving their road safety goals. We assist clients with:

• Establishing targets, strategies and policies
• Preparing action plans
• Conducting safety audits
• Collecting data and analyzing statistics
• Designing roads and streets
• Designing cycling, pedestrian and public transit infrastructure
• Designing safe and sustainable residential developments

The success of Vision Zero projects in Sweden has spurred a global movement that has spread across borders to the rest of Europe, Canada, the United States, Australia, South Africa and Asia. With offices around the world, including in countries with the highest per capita road deaths, WSP has built an experienced network of Vision Zero experts. By gathering and sharing our expertise on road safety, creating innovative tools for our consultants and anticipating the demands and requirements of our clients, WSP is fulfilling its mission to be a solution-driven advisor in the market of tomorrow.

Vision Zero represents a new direction that is taking road safety to another level. The concept can be tailored to any road environment to support greater mobility, a better quality of life and thriving  communities.

Support for Vision Zero across disciplines

Explore how intelligent transport systems (ITS) can become part of the Vision Zero road safety solution. Viewing each intelligent transport system within a broad context—considering people, processes, infrastructure, vehicles, technology and associated data—is already standard practice in some parts of the world but a relatively new concept in others. Read the series that explores the application of the ITS whole-system approach in support of Vision Zero.