Saturday, April 23, 2016

The Definition And Objectives Of Vision Zero

By Linda Wright


On a global scale, several accidents happen daily and they lead to hundreds of deaths and serious injuries. That is the reason for the establishment of various efforts to try and manage these fatalities. Vision zero is a project that aims to improve road traffic safety and ensure that there are no deaths or severe injuries resulting from road traffic. The project is powered by the reasoning that human life is the most important thing to which no price tag should be placed.

There are four main principles that govern the whole project, that is, ethics, responsibility, safety, and mechanisms. The principle of ethics holds that human life should hold higher status over other objectives such as mobility which also need to be achieved on roads. The second principle is responsibility, which holds that road users and parties involved in the provision and regulation of road traffic systems share responsibility.

The third principle deals with road user safety. Under this principle, human fallibility must be accounted for in road traffic systems and chances for errors minimized. Even in the event that errors occur, harm inflicted should be kept to the minimal. The concern of the fourth principle is mechanisms of change. This principle considers guaranteeing the safety of citizens by providers and regulators. There must be cooperation among road users, citizens, and providers and regulators and the three parties must have the will to change so as to achieve road safety.

Later on after the project had already commenced, other principles were added to it besides the main four. The additional principles aimed at ensuring that motorists comprehend the full scope of the movement. The first principle states that injuries and deaths due to traffic can be prevented hence none is acceptable. Secondly, mistakes will always be made by people. Therefore, the design of transportation system should ensure that when the mistakes occur, they are not fatal.

Thirdly, human safety must be prioritized in all decision making processes in transportation system. Priority should not be given to any other factor, even cost. Finally, the approach adopted in formulating traffic safety solutions must be holistic in nature.

As part of meeting its goals, the movement suggested some long-term changes in speed limits in different road sections. This determination kept in mind the maximum limits of both automobiles and human beings. For example, the force of impact of a car travelling at 30 km/h is the maximum pedestrian hit that a human being can withstand.

Thus, cars should move at a maximum speed of 30 km/h or less when travelling in areas of possible collision with people. If cars have to move at speeds higher than this limit in populated areas, then a separate road system must be constructed to separate them from pedestrians. In the same way, cars that have good designs can tolerate frontal impact at speeds no more than 70 km/h. Side impact can be tolerated up to a maximum speed of 50 km/h.

If the design of the road is such that side and frontal impact is not possible, cars can move at speeds exceeding 100 km/h. Opposing traffic in such roads is often separated using crash barriers. In addition to crash barriers, vulnerable and slower road users are prohibited and grade separation and limited access are effected.




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