Vision Zero

Vision Zero ( German Vision Zero ) refers to the goal of making roads and transport so sure that no traffic deaths and serious injuries occur more. Vision Zero has its origin in OSH and was used in the 1990s in Sweden for the first time to the area of road transport. The basic idea of Vision Zero is that people make mistakes. Therefore, the transport system must be designed so that these errors do not lead to life-threatening injuries to its users.

Measures and concepts

Some measures and concepts that have been developed from the Vision Zero approach are:

• Structural separation of lanes in opposite directions. The lanes are separated by barriers similar to motorways. For this purpose, for example, double steel cables used to post. This could lead to a reduction of accidents by 90 % for implemented projects. A physical separation, however, is in town or on roads with one lane per direction limited. It must also be ensured that the structural design of the separation, no additional safety risk eg created for motorcyclists.
• Bus stops can be narrowed to allow only einstreifige passage. So Busaussteiger can not be detected by overtaking cars.
• Intersections are replaced with roundabouts. The danger of intersections, which are not respected, is known for some time.
• City limits are provided with pivoting motions of the road to avoid the driveway too fast.
• Speed ​​limits on hazardous road sections, generally at night, in the rain or for new drivers.

Earlier Vision Zero concepts also saw before, to separate bicycle lanes from the car lane and the footpath. In order to simultaneously achieve an effective use of the bicycle transport in urban areas, this is associated with a high structural complexity. The safe merging of traffic routes for cars, bicycles and pedestrians at intersections is complicated, which is why the separation of car and bicycle traffic in the inner-city traffic is now often no more than enhance safety considered.

Implementation

Since 1997, the Swedish government aims to make 2015 all Swedish roads according to this principle. All newly built trails only be built on the principle of Vision Zero and the old road networks are upgraded.

Switzerland is working on its own implementation of the Vision Zero. The projects " Vesipo " (never ) and " Via sicura " (current) attempt Vision Zero concepts while minimizing costs and obstruct traffic to achieve.