Transportation safety is a public health issue, and our current framework is part of the problem

Traditional transportation safety frameworks like the three Es (Engineering, Enforcement, and Education) are impeding strategies that will reduce traffic deaths and improve overall population health, says a new study. The study introduces the Safe Systems Pyramid, a framing of the Safe Systems approach designed to prioritize policies and programs that incorporate health principles into transportation decision making.  By combining public health efforts with transportation strategies and practices, the authors propose an alternative approach that moves away from identifying crash outcomes and toward addressing the causes of safety crises., the authors propose an alternative approach away from identifying crash outcomes and toward addressing the causes of safety crises. 

The incompatibility of Vision Zero and VMT growth

The U.S. transportation field has tried many things to reduce traffic crashes, fatalities, and injuries: drunk-driving and seatbelt laws; in-vehicle safety improvements; wide, straight roads with crash zones; graduated licensing; and more. Yet traffic crashes still kill 35,000-40,000 Americans each year and injure millions. A new online resource that helps explain the situation. Fatalities are largely a function of miles driven, so you can’t be serious about Vision Zero without also being serious about VMT management.

Setting speed limits based on safety, not driver behavior

The 85th percentile rule in speed limit setting—an arbitrary but longstanding convention—has begun to weaken in recent years, with new guidance now allowing for lower speeds. FHWA’s USLIMITS2, for example, allows for speeds down to the 50th percentile in certain cases. Now there’s a growing push to take observed vehicle speed out of the speed limit equation entirely.

Los Angeles and San Francisco using data to target Vision Zero efforts

As cities commit to Vision Zero, they have started to examine intersections and roadway segments with high crash rates, serious injuries, and fatalities to pedestrians. What they have found is that a small percent of roadways account for a large portion of serious crashes. And crashes disproportionately affect certain populations.

Report calls for a Safe Systems approach to reduce fatalities

A new report from the World Research Institute finds that the most effective way to prevent traffic deaths is a systemic approach that shifts responsibility away from the drivers and other road users to those responsible for roadway planning and designing, land use mix, providing mobility options, and enforcement of traffic laws. Analysis in 53 countries found that those that have taken a “Safe System” approach have achieved both the lowest rates of fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants and the greatest reduction in fatality levels over the past 20 years.

Report calls for a Safe Systems approach to reduce fatalities

A new report from the World Research Institute finds that the most effective way to prevent traffic deaths is a systemic approach that shifts responsibility away from the drivers and other road users to those responsible for roadway planning and designing, land use mix, providing mobility options, and enforcement of traffic laws. Analysis in 53 countries found that those that have taken a “Safe System” approach have achieved both the lowest rates of fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants and the greatest reduction in fatality levels over the past 20 years.

Cities look toward design in achieving Vision Zero

Looking to improve safety and eliminate traffic fatalities, at least 17 American cities have committed to Vision Zero. In addition to ramping up education and enforcement, these efforts require road designers to rethink streets and intersections in ways that minimize risks to non-motorized users. This often means correcting issues resulting from a strict, decades-long focus on vehicle movement.