Local Programming: Safety Last: Why Vision Zero Isn’t Working

Vision Zero, which originated in Sweden, spread across Europe, and finally reached the United States, reframes how transportation planners and engineers should think about traffic safety. Vision Zero states that traffic fatalities and serious injuries are preventable and that any more than zero is unacceptable. It also acknowledges that people make mistakes and that street design has a profound impact on transportation safety.

Despite local, regional, state, and federal commitments to Vision Zero and its various iterations (e.g., sustainable safety, systemic safety, the Safe System Approach), more than 40,000 people were killed and nearly 2.4 million people injured while traveling in the United States in 2022. Our approach to transportation safety is failing. Denver locals with national perspectives explain why.