Review Of Vision Zero Strategies

1.3 MB·English

by  Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization

O S T ON REGI
B ON BOSTON REGION METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION
MPO
Stephanie Pollack, MassDOT Secretary and CEO and MPO Chair
M N
E O Tegin L. Teich, Executive Director, MPO Staff
TRO ZATI
POLITAN PLANNING OR G ANI TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM
DATE: January 21, 2021
TO: Boston MPO Board
FROM: Matthew Archer, Sandy Johnston, Blake Acton, Bradley Putnam
RE: Review of Vision Zero Strategies
1 BACKGROUND
Vision Zero is a policy goal, planning paradigm, and process in which a
municipality or other jurisdiction aims to reduce its number of transportation-
related fatalities to zero. It is a well-known paradigm for establishing traffic and
roadway safety, with an emphasis on the most vulnerable roadway users. The
traditional approach to roadway safety emphasizes the role of personal
responsibility in preventing accidents. A Vision Zero approach differs by shifting
primary responsibility to the designers of the roadway network, and recognizing
that faults in design are the primary cause of grievous injury and death (Belin,
Tillgren, and Vedung 2012). In addition, Vision Zero theory acknowledges that
human error is unavoidable. As such, Vison Zero policies do not seek to
eliminate all crashes, but to ensure that street design and operation account for
human error to make all crashes survivable (Shahum 2017).
Early 2014 marked the beginning of the adoption of Vision Zero initiatives in the
United States. New York City launched its Vision Zero initiative in January of
2014, and San Francisco followed with its initiative in February. Both cities
pledged in their supporting action plans to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2024. New
York City reported 200 traffic fatalities in 2018, a decline from 299 fatalities in
2013 (Fitzsimmons 2019). However, pedestrian fatalities increased from 107 to
114 between 2017 and 2018. Traffic fatalities in San Francisco dropped from 32
to 20 between 2016 and 2017. This number increased to 29 in 2019, a slight
reduction compared to 31 fatalities in 2014 (City of San Francisco 2020).
As of 2020, 42 cities in the United States have adopted Vision Zero policies;
Maryland, North Carolina, and North Dakota have adopted Vision Zero at the
state level.
Committing to Vision Zero policies requires municipalities to approach roadway
safety with a nontraditional mindset. The Vision Zero Network (a US nonprofit
Civil Rights, nondiscrimination, and accessibility information is on the last page.
State Transportation Building • Ten Park Plaza, Suite 2150 • Boston, MA 02116-3968
Tel. [phone] • Fax [phone] • TTY [phone] • www.bostonmpo.org
Review of Vision Zero Strategies January 21, 2021
organization committed to advancing Vision Zero strategies) describes five
fundamental tenets of Vision Zero, frequently cited in US Vision Zero action plans
(Vision Zero Network 2017b):

• Traffic deaths are preventable
• Recognize the need to integrate human failing in approach to roadway
safety
• Prevent fatal and severe crashes rather than collisions
• Take a systems approach (as opposed to individual responsibility)
• Saving lives is not expensive

This project seeks to identify the Vision Zero strategies that are most effective at
reducing traffic deaths and serious injuries. This document presents global case
studies and provides an overview of specific strategies and implementation
factors that have led to success. Most of the case studies are from international
locations that have a longer history with Vision Zero and have experienced more
success. In addition to Portland, Oregon, the case study locations include
Sweden; the Netherlands; Oslo, Norway; and Helsinki, Finland. Finally, the
memo will provide guidance to expanding and enhancing Vision Zero policies in
the Boston region.

This project also highlights the difficulty of applying Northern European models of
governmental cooperation to the United States. In particular, scholars and
advocates note that the Vision Zero paradigm alone is not adequate for
addressing the legacy of racism in transportation planning or traffic enforcement
in the United States. Mixed or disappointing outcomes can be traced to a focus
on branding without the commitment to implementing physical interventions that
comes from the acceptance of responsibility for success by leaders. These
concerns do not undermine the overall importance of reorienting approaches to
traffic safety. Instead, acknowledging the limitations of the Vision Zero framework
can help municipalities in the Boston region tailor their approach to achieve local
success.

2 CASE STUDIES
The following section presents five case studies of locations that have
successfully implemented Vision Zero strategies, which have resulted in
improved safety for roadway users and can serve as examples for the Boston
region.

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Review of Vision Zero Strategies January 21, 2021
2.1 Sweden
The concept and term Vision Zero is believed to have originated in Sweden. In
the 1990s, national transportation leaders in Sweden changed their approach to
the problem of fatalities and serious injuries in the transportation system. They
discarded cost-benefit analyses and focused on ethical and human values, in
particular, that no one should be seriously injured or killed on a road. In October
1997, the Swedish Parliament adopted Nollvisionen (Vision Zero) as the basis for
the country’s road safety work, with the goal “that [no one] shall be killed or
seriously injured as a consequence of accidents in road traffic” (Belin, Tillgren,
and Vedung 2012). Vision Zero represented a shift from the traditional approach
to roadway safety in Sweden. While fatalities and injuries had been primarily
attributed to user error, Vision Zero theory maintained that roadway design and
operation, in addition to roadway users, are responsible for accidents. The
Swedish parliament included an outline for traffic safety responsibility (Tingvall
and Haworth 1999):

1. The designers of the system are always ultimately responsible for the
design, operation, and use of the road transport system and thereby
responsible for the level of safety within the entire system.
2. Road users are responsible for following the rules for using the road
transport system set by the system designers.
3. If road users fail to obey these rules due to lack of knowledge,
acceptance, or ability, or if injuries occur, the system designers are
required to take necessary further steps to counteract people being killed
or seriously injured.

Vision Zero in Sweden does not assign blame for traffic fatalities or severe
injuries. Instead, it teaches stakeholders about how they influence outcomes
based on facts and data. Vision Zero in Sweden assumes that human beings
make mistakes and that transportation systems should be designed to minimize
the repercussions of those mistakes. This approach emphasizes the
responsibility of roadway designers to create inherently safe systems.

One of the guiding principles of Vision Zero in Sweden is speed reduction.
Swedish road designers believe that pedestrians and bicyclists should never
share unregulated road space with cars that are traveling faster than 20 mph.
Designers emphasize physical road elements, such as raised crosswalks and
roundabouts, to encourage slower driving near intersections. Where slower
speeds are not possible, separating people who are bicycling and people who
are walking from cars is the next best option.

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Another guiding principle of Vision Zero in Sweden is to focus on preventing fatal
and severe injuries rather than preventing crashes. As such, Swedish
transportation planners have focused on road designs that reduce the severity of
crashes. For example, median barriers that separate head-on auto traffic were
found to reduce fatal crashes by 80 percent. This strategy did not reduce the
overall number of crashes, but it did reduce the number of crashes that resulted
in severe or fatal injuries. Similarly, roundabouts could help to reduce the severity
of crashes by slowing vehicles and softening the angle of crashes when they do
occur.

Swedish transportation officials also found that effective Vision Zero
implementation requires careful data collection. They found that crash data
reported by police was not always complete, and so they supplemented the
crash data with injury data reported by hospitals, leading to a better
understanding of traffic-related injuries.

2.2 The Netherlands
The national approach to traffic safety in the Netherlands, known as Sustainable
Safety, is the equivalent of Vision Zero in Sweden. Sustainable Safety began as
a vision of the Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) in the early 1990s. In
1997, the same year Sweden adopted Vision Zero, all levels of Dutch
government formally adopted the Start-up Programme on Sustainable Safety
document. The Start-up Programme document included 24 agreements between
the central government and regional and local public authorities, resulting in the
adoption of uniform guidelines, large-scale implementation of infrastructure
measures, stricter enforcement, and the establishment of permanent road-user
education. This foundational document has been revised twice since then, with
the most recent version adopted in 2018 (SWOV 2018).

Sustainable Safety is a systems approach that applies known solutions
systematically and holds the owners and managers of roads, not just their users,
accountable for safety. It is a system adapted to humans, who are vulnerable and
make mistakes (Furth 2015). Sustainable Safety further aligns safety-
management decisions with broader transport and planning decisions that meet
wider economic, human, and environmental goals, and shapes interventions to
meet the long-term goal, rather than relying on traditional interventions to set the
limits of any long-term targets (Weijermars and Wegman 2011). Sustainable
Safety implements these overall values through five principles codified in the
SWOV vision guidebook. The principles listed below have been in effect since
2018.

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Design principles
• Functionality of roads
• (Bio)Mechanics—limiting differences in speed, direction, mass, and size,
and giving road users appropriate protection
• Psychologics—aligning the design of the road traffic environment with
road user competencies

Organization Principles1
• Effectively allocating responsibility
• Learning and Innovating in the traffic system

Figure 1 shows the evolution of Sustainable Safety’s principles over time.

Figure 1
Evolution of Sustainable Safety Principles, 1992–2018

Source: SWOV (2018)

The Dutch approach is heavily focused on infrastructural interventions. All
roadways are classified by purpose, dividing roads into three types: Flow,
Distributor, and Access (Wegman et al 2006). Flow roads carry traffic at higher
speeds between areas; Distributor roads link Flow roads to local areas; and
Access roads serve neighborhoods and local areas, with traffic carried at low
volume and low speed. Every attempt is made to segregate traffic by type so
roads below the Flow level do not carry through traffic, and nonmotorized road
users are not exposed to the high speeds on Flow roads (where necessary,
those roads are equipped with separated pedestrian/bicycle infrastructure). On

1 There were initially three principles; two more were introduced more recently.
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local streets, Dutch planners and engineers attempt to control speeds with
physical interventions such as speed humps and chicanes. They try to protect
pedestrians by only allowing protected (as opposed to permitted) left turns and
attempting to ensure pedestrians never have to cross more than two lanes at a
time. Local streets often carry a 30 km/h (20 mph) designation and are designed
for pedestrians, cyclists, and cars to calmly share space. Roundabouts, raised
crosswalks, and raised-table intersections are also quite common (Furth 2015).
The national government provided a funding stream for these improvements from
the very beginning, although a local match was also expected (Weijermars and
Wegman 2011). The Sustainable Safety approach has also brought a renewed
emphasis on traffic enforcement and more recently on education, particularly of
the most vulnerable road users, such as children and the elderly.

Weijermars and Wegman (2011) estimate that Dutch traffic safety measures,
primarily but not exclusively those parts of the Sustainable Safety program,
prevented the loss of approximately 1,600 lives between 1998 and 2007, relative
to a continuation of prior policies (Figure 2).

Figure 2
Estimation of Lives Saved by Sustainable Safety, 1998–2007

Source: Weijermars and Wegman (2011)

Progress has continued since then, with SWOV (2018) documented road
fatalities continuing to fall over the next 10 years (Figure 3).

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Figure 3
Road Fatalities and Serious Injuries in the Netherlands, 2007–17

Source: SWOV (2018)

Notably, serious road injuries have slowly increased over the same time, perhaps
suggesting that some crashes that would have previously led to fatalities now
cause injury instead. This may be considered progress, but there is an indication
that there is significant room remaining for improvement.

2.3 Oslo, Norway
Norway adopted Vision Zero at a national level in 1999. Since adoption, roadway
fatalities have dropped 75 percent, from 7.9 per 100,000 residents in 1998 to 2.0
in 2019 (Statistics Norway 2020a). However, nationwide fatalities have fallen
consistently since the early 1970s when Norway began implementing systemic
road safety improvements. This decline is evident in Figure 4, which shows a
gradual decline in roadway fatalities from its historical peak in 1971 at 14.5 per
100,000. In 2012, fatality rates fell below its 1947 historic low of 3.0 per 100,000
and have since remained below 3.0 every year since 2014.

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Figure 4
Persons Killed or Severely Injured in Road Traffic Accidents per 100k
Residents in Norway from 1946 to 2019
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1946 1951 1956 1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016

Source: Statistics Norway (2020a)

In 2019, only one traffic fatality occurred in the City of Oslo with zero pedestrian
or cyclist fatalities (Statistics Norway 2020b). Although this follows the general
decline of roadway fatalities in Norway, the city has been particularly proactive in
reducing the interaction of vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians. Since 2015, Oslo
has worked toward the concept of Bilfritt byliv (Car-Free City Life) to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. This work coincides with strategies to achieve Vision
Zero.

Beginning as a pilot in six of 13 districts in 2017, Oslo has disincentivized vehicle
use while encouraging mode shift. Public parking has been largely eliminated,
with the exception of parking for persons with disabilities, and replaced with bike
lanes, pedestrian facilities, and public spaces. In 2018, some streets were
designated as car free and speed limits were reduced (Walker 2020).

The idea of the car-free city and the strategies employed in Oslo have not been
widely accepted throughout Oslo. The city found that 55 percent of the public
believe that the city should have the “fewest possible vehicles” (Cathcart-Keays
2017). However, a 2015 proposal to create a car-free zone in the city center
faced significant public backlash as local businesses feared they would lose non-
local shoppers (Cathcart-Keays 2017). In response, the city revised its plan to
reduce the number of cars rather than banning them altogether. This plan was
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implemented gradually over two years by reducing parking, expanding pedestrian
infrastructure, and implementing roadblocks.

2.4 Helsinki, Finland
Helsinki, the capital city of Finland, rose to prominence among US observers
when, alongside Oslo, it was reported that Helsinki had managed to eliminate
pedestrian fatalities entirely in 2019 (Wilson 2020). Indeed, by May 2020 it had
been two years since a pedestrian fatality occurred in Helsinki (Teivainen 2020).
This is a remarkable achievement given Helsinki’s past experiences; during the
1960s the city saw about 40 pedestrians killed in traffic each year, even though
car traffic was then approximately one-third of present levels (City of Helsinki
2019). Traffic crashes and fatalities reached a peak in 1965 when Helsinki
recorded 84 traffic deaths. Even the 1980s and 1990s saw approximately 20 to
30 road deaths per year, so the near-elimination of fatalities is a relatively recent
phenomenon (Yli-Seppälä 2020). Though Helsinki’s results are remarkable, its
efforts to achieve roadway safety have seemingly gone less remarked upon in
the United States, perhaps because the Finnish capital does not appear to brand
its work with a single phrase comparable to “Vision Zero” in Sweden or
“Sustainable Safety” in the Netherlands.

The city reports that “39 percent of journeys were made on foot in Helsinki in
2018, 29 percent by public transport, 22 percent by passenger car, nine percent
by bike and one percent by other vehicles” (HSL 2019). The city considers
pedestrians its first priority in transportation planning, followed by (in order of
priority) cyclists, public transport, city logistics, and passenger cars (Yli-Seppälä
2020). Recognizing that speed largely determines the severity of crashes,
Helsinki has consistently lowered speed limits in the urban core since 1970, as
Figure 5 shows.

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Figure 5
Changes in Speed Limits in Helsinki, 1973–2004

Source: City of Helsinki
https://www.hel.fi/helsinki/en/maps-and-transport/streets-traffic/safety/

Helsinki is planning the installation of 70 new traffic cameras to enforce these
limits and other regulations (Yli-Seppälä 2020), but its traffic safety program is
not solely about enforcement. Helsinki also embraces a wide variety of physical
interventions at different levels of cost and complexity, including speed bumps;
elevated crosswalks; elevated or grade-separated intersections; a preference for
roundabouts over signalization; narrowing of roadways to control speeds;
pedestrian islands, including bus stop islands; and, in some circumstances,
mixed-use streets. Bans on through traffic are considered inefficient since they
require police enforcement and, therefore, are used sparingly (City of Helsinki
2019). Helsinki is also planning to boost funding for building out a high-quality
bicycle network to about €20 million per year (~ $23M), with hopes of boosting
bicycle mode share from 11 to 15 percent (Yli-Seppälä 2020).

Interestingly, Helsinki does not appear to use Vision Zero branding, nor were
researchers able to find any English-language materials giving any indication of a
different local branding similar to Sustainable Safety in the Netherlands.
Consistently improving traffic safety, integrated with other policy goals such as
sustainability, is simply part of regular practice. As a Helsinki traffic engineer
says, “In traffic safety, the biggest challenge is integrating these new ways of
moving—e-scooters and other electric vehicles, for example—into existing traffic
and city norms” (Yli-Seppälä 2020).
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