The Vision Zero movement is rapidly gaining momentum across the United States, with a growing list of cities committing to a time-bound goal to eliminate all traffic fatalities. How can advocates work with city, state and neighborhood leaders to ensure that the voices of all stakeholders are heard so we can co-create improvements and strategies that work for everyone? On our September Distance Learning Webinar we explored the leading-edge work from several local advocacy organizations advancing Vision Zero for everyone.
For this session, we were delighted to welcome national, state and local level advocacy leaders, including Leah Shahum, director of the Vision Zero Network; Noel Mickelberry, executive director of Oregon Walks; Nicole Ferrara, executive director of Walk San Francisco; Stephanie Noll, deputy director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance in Portland; and Samantha Ollinger, executive director of Bike San Diego.
Because Vision Zero is such a timely topic and our presenters had so much to share, we're dividing the tipsheet into a series of blogs this week based on each panelist's presentations.
(Are you an Alliance member? You can watch the full recording of the webinar — and dozens of others — in our Resource Library! Click here!)
From San Francisco to Sweden — and back again
There's no better advocate to set the stage for the conversation than Leah Shahum. As I wrote for the League last year...
For nearly two decades, Shahum served as the Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, building the local advocacy organization to 10,000+ members and positioning the group as a bike movement innovator. But, for all the progress and accolades — including Gold Bicycle Friendly Community status for San Francisco — Shahum had a jarring realization in 2013.
In the wake of a particularly fatal year for bicyclists and pedestrians, it became clear to her that the slow, piecemeal approach to creating safer streets wasn't moving nearly fast enough. It was time to redraw the lines of the debate, shift the cultural compass for the city, the public and advocates to no longer accept traffic deaths as tragedies out of their control.
So, at the start of 2014, in partnership with Walk San Francisco, the SFBC launched a Vision Zero campaign, calling for a reduction of all traffic deaths to zero in 10 years..."
Shahum acknowledges with a laugh that she became somewhat "obsessed" with Vision Zero — and its potential to create safe mobility for all in the United States. So earlier this year she started a new project — the Vision Zero Network — to support cities working toward Vision Zero. This summer, she got a chance to delve deeper into the concept by traveling to Europe to research Vision Zero strategies in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands as a recent German Marshall Fund Fellow.
What is Vision Zero?
"Vision Zero is setting a goal of zero traffic fatalities and severe injuries for all users — with a strong emphasize on all," Shahum explained. "Aside from that goal, it’s also a philosophy, a way of thinking and set of strategies. It’s a mindset that changes our way of thinking that traffic fatalities and severe collisions are an unfortunate fact of business in our society to a more proactive way of thinking that understands these fatalities and injuries are indeed preventable."
The number of U.S. cities commited to or considering Vision Zero is growing quickly.
How is Vision Zero different for traditional traffic safety strategies?
Shahum highlighted several key points that distinguish Vision Zero.
"Safety is not a new concept. We, as advocates or city staff or city leaders, have always been committed to traffic safety. What’s different is the understanding that fatalities and severe injuries on our streets are preventable and controllable.
Vision Zero is bringing together a broader and critical group of stakeholders to work on this issue. It’s not just a problem to be managed by traffic engineers; it also needs the attention of police officers, of public health and community members and understanding the role all the stakeholders have to play.
Vision Zero is data driven. It’s less about a knee-jerk reactions to tragedy and more about using data to determine where our resources are best spent. Nobody has all the money and staff and resources they need. Data helps decisionmakers make choices about where to put our energy, whether that’s dollars for improved walking or biking, or increased police enforcement.
And Vision Zero helps to expand who’s responsible for safety on our streets. In the past, street safety has been an issue of individual responsibility. Vision Zero helps us step back and see our societal responsibility and the systems and cultural norms we can put in place to ensure safe mobility for all."
What are some of the top lessons learned thus far?
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution: Not all Es — engineering, enforcement, education and evaluation — are created equal. The approach and priorities will be different in each community.
We’re on the right track in American communities: Vision Zero was originally conceived and implemented in Sweden with similar adoption in the Netherlands and Germany. The levers of change that European leaders point to — most notably speed reduction and management — are the same things American leaders are prioritizing.
The success of Vision Zero depends on leadership and commitment: That includes not only city, advocacy and community buy-in but is also bolstered by support from the private sector, as well.
Speed matters most: While there's no silver bullet, leaders in Sweden, Netherlands and Germany pointed time and time again to managing and lowering speeds as the main catalyst for decreases in fatalities and severe injuries.
Zero is the right goal: Even 15 to 20 years into their campaigns, having not yet met their goals of zero deaths, countries are still committed to their vision to eliminate fatalities and severe injuries.
Learn more and follow progress nationwide at www.visionzeronetwork.org
