Monday, April 25, 2016

The Definition And Objectives Of Vision Zero

By Linda Wright


Accidents that happen everyday on a global scale result in many deaths and fatal injuries. Accidents have become so rampant that measures are being taken to reduce or alleviate them altogether. Vision zero refers to a multi-national road traffic safety project that is being undertaken with the aim of achieving a highway system that has no serious injuries or fatalities in road traffic. The reason behind the project is that no price should be placed on human life.

The government of the entire project is based on four principles. These principles are safety, mechanisms of change, responsibility, and ethics. The principle of ethics demand that other goals and priorities in road systems should come after human safety. The principle of responsibility maintains that there is shared responsibility for ensuring safety between users of roads and providers and regulators of transportation systems.

The third principle is concerned with the safety of road users. It states that systems of road traffic must account for human fallibility and minimize chances of errors occurring. Even if the errors occur, the roads should be designed as to minimize the harm inflicted on victims of accidents. The last principle deals with mechanisms for change. Under this principle, the safety of citizens must be guaranteed by regulators and providers. Citizens, road users, and providers and regulators must cooperate and be willing to change to attain safety.

More principles were incorporated into the project several months after its commencement. The intention of the extra principles was to make sure that motorists have a complete understanding of the full scope the movement had. The first principle added holds that no injury or death caused by traffic is acceptable since they are all preventable. Secondly, people will always be prone to making mistakes. Thus, fatalities need to be prevented even in the face of such mistakes.

Thirdly, all decision making processes in transportation system should put safety at the forefront. No other factor, even the cost should be considered as more important than safety. Lastly, a holistic approach must be adopted when formulating traffic safety solutions.

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.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment