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.
In the US, WSP has been a key partner in New Jersey’s award-winning Complete Streets Initiative, preparing the Complete Streets Design Guide for the New Jersey Department of Transportation and presenting tools and methodologies to design Complete Streets in a variety of settings. In Philadelphia, WSP is helping the City implement the first Vision Zero Action Plan through the creation of a “Measures of Connectivity” tool enabling the analysis of “before” and “after” conditions for candidate corridors for Complete Streets investments. WSP’s expertise includes a variety of planning, design, outreach and educational efforts to ensure optimal implementation in municipalities with differing needs.
Across Australia and New Zealand, WSP is at the forefront of transport planning and traffic engineering. With over 70 people working in 16 different offices, the region’s Integrated Transport Planning team delivers a diverse range of projects for local and state government clients, many of which involve road safety.
Recently, WSP played a key role in the planning and design of several “Safe Active Streets”. These corridors (sometimes referred to as “bike boulevards”) can be described as traffic-calmed local residential streets which prioritize the needs and safety of vulnerable road users, while simultaneously making local communities more livable and family friendly. Although relatively new to Australia, the concept of re-engineering local residential streets to reduce vehicle speeds and traffic volumes is gaining traction in many other parts of the world. Numerous studies have shown that reducing speed limits on local streets to 30km/h leads to a significant reduction in the number and severity of accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists.