Berlin, Germany – Cities worldwide are proving that the ambitious goal of zero traffic fatalities is within reach. According to a recent report, 1273 cities across 26 countries have achieved zero traffic deaths for at least one year.
The global traffic crash death toll has shown a slight decrease in recent years, but the statistics are still alarming, with over 3,200 deaths per day. Road crashes continue to be the leading cause of death for children and young people aged 5–29. This information comes from the “Global status report on road safety 2023,” released by the World Health Organization (WHO), the primary road safety agency for the United Nations.
In the US, the rates of traffic-related deaths are seven times higher than in countries like Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. To tackle this issue, many jurisdictions worldwide have adopted the Vision Zero or Safe System approach to road safety and design, initially implemented in Sweden in the 1990s.
The Vision Zero initiative aims to eliminate all road deaths and serious injuries by implementing multiple layers of protection. These layers ensure that if one measure fails, others will act as a safety net to reduce the impact of a crash. The emphasis is on creating safer individuals, roads, vehicles, speeds, and post-crash care.
“Aiming for ‘Vision Zero’ is the only appropriate strategy because every person killed on the road is one too many,” said Jann Fehlauer, executive vice president of the DEKRA Group. The DEKRA Group, a company based in Germany that specializes in automotive testing and research, has been instrumental in promoting road safety globally.
The DEKRA Group recently presented an interactive world map showcasing cities that have achieved the Vision Zero goal. The map, initially launched in 2014, has since been continuously updated and expanded to include data from 26 countries. While the focus remains on Europe, countries like the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Japan are also part of the mapping initiative.
Efforts to promote road safety and achieve the Vision Zero goal are ongoing, with the DEKRA Group calling for continued actions at all levels. The initiative has already seen success in hundreds of cities worldwide, with the hope of expanding these efforts to more regions in the coming years. For more information on the interactive map, readers can access it online via the provided link.