{"id":12562,"date":"2020-09-02T15:58:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T15:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/?page_id=12562"},"modified":"2025-10-26T22:51:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T22:51:50","slug":"vision-zero-and-the-safe-system-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/news-and-resources\/road-safety-information\/vision-zero-and-the-safe-system-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Vision Zero and the Safe System Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"The goal of Vision Zero, first implemented by Sweden in 1997, is to eliminate deaths and serious injuries from road transportation. Achieving this goal will require the adoption of a Safe System Approach that considers the mental and physical capacities of humans and creates road transportation systems designed to effectively reduce the risk of injury and death caused by crashes.<\/p>\n

Vision Zero Principles:<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Life and health can never be exchanged for other benefits in society,<\/li>\n
  2. Serious injuries and fatalities are predictable and preventable,<\/li>\n
  3. Road users are vulnerable but should not be killed or seriously injured as a result of a crash,<\/li>\n
  4. Humans are prone to error but should not die or become seriously injured as a result,<\/li>\n
  5. System-wide changes are the most effective.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    More information on Vision Zero can be found in\u00a0The Vision Zero Handbook: Theory, Technology and Management for a Zero Casualty Policy<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Vision Zero and the Safe System Approach: A Primer for Canada (2023)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Safe System Approach:<\/h2>\n

    The Safe System Approach recognizes the interdependence of the safe system components: Safe Roads, Safe Speeds, Safe Road Users and Safe Vehicles, and the actions that can be taken to achieve continuous improvements across these components. The goal of this approach is to prevent all collisions and to assure that if collisions do occur, road users will not be seriously injured. While road users must always try to interact safely, the Safe System Approach emphasizes that the transportation system must be designed to accommodate human vulnerability and error. Therefore, the Safe System approach places more responsibility on the system designers than on individual road users. The Safe System Approach is illustrated in the figure below (Canada\u2019s Road Safety Strategy 2025<\/a>).<\/p>\n

    Components of Safe System Approach<\/h4>\n
    \"Safe
    Graphic Credit: Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators adapted from the 2009 WHO report on the Global Status on Road Safety<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Additional information on Vision Zero and the Safe System Approach:<\/p>\n

    Parachute\u2019s Vision Zero Road Safety Initiative<\/a><\/p>\n

    Vision Zero: Definition & Principles<\/a><\/p>\n

    What is a Safe System Approach in Road Safety<\/a><\/p>\n

    ITE Research: The Road to Zero: Taking a Safe System Approach<\/a><\/p>\n

    Safe System Approach & Vision Zero: TAC\u2019s Primer for Canada<\/a><\/p>\n

    Action2Zero \u2013 Transportation Injury Research Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

    Decades of Action for Road Safety:<\/h2>\n

    The United Nations (UN) General Assembly passed a resolution in March 2010 to establish the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020. During this decade, the goal of the World Health Organization was to \u201cstabilize and then reduce the forecasted level of road traffic fatalities around the world by increasing road safety activities conducted at national, regional and global levels\u201d by 2020 (Global Plan for the Decade of Action on Road Safety \u2014 WHO<\/a>).<\/p>\n

    The principles guiding the Decade of Action are to:<\/p>\n