Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The Principles Of Vision Zero

By Daniel Young


Safety on highways is a major concern for many international players because many lives are lost and property damaged due to accidents. As an effort to curb the issue with road safety, the project vision zero was established. For the purpose of this article, the abbreviation VZ will be used. VZ is a road traffic safety project that is participated in by several nations. The aim is to achieve a highway system in which there are no serious injuries or fatalities as a result of road traffic.

Various aspects of this initiative are governed by many principles. One of the aspects governed is construction of highways. Safety, ethics, mechanisms for change, and responsibility are the four major principles. Human safety is prioritized under the safety principle more than all other goals of road traffic systems.

The responsibility principle emphasizes shared responsibility between regulators and providers of road traffic systems. Under the safety principle, human fallibility must be taken into consideration and the opportunities for error must be minimized. Also, in cases errors occur, the amount of harm done must also be minimized. The mechanism for change emphasizes the need to change in order to achieve the goal of zero fatalities due to traffic accidents.

There are specific speed limits that are suggested by the project towards the achievement of its objectives. The speeds suggested are based on the limits of automobiles and human beings. For instance, human beings have a tolerance of 30 km/h if the car is well designed. Similarly, well designed cars remain safe at 70 km/h for frontal impact and 50 km/h in side impacts.

In cases where vehicles need to move fast in urban areas, the suggested solution is separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Otherwise, all movement by vehicles in urban areas should be constrained to speeds less than 30 km/h. The initiative suggests that drivers can move at speeds in excess of 100 km/h if roads are designed to prevent any form of frontal or side impacts.

Many ways can be used to ensure that there is no frontal and side impacts. For starters, opposing traffic could be separated by constructing crash barriers on the roads. Another method involves keeping vulnerable and slow-moving road users from high-speed sections of the road system. Additional techniques are use of grade separation and limiting access.

The adoption of VZ has varied a lot among countries. Whereas some countries have adopted the initiative on all their roads, some have limited the adoption to specific roads or areas. For instance, Canada first adopted the initiative in Edmonton City in 2015 before other cities followed suit later.

The level of impact experienced from this project is highest in developed states. There has been a significant fall in the number of fatalities. The same is not true in poor countries where adoption has been slow and non-uniform while fatalities rise yearly. Achieving zero fatalities globally is a goal that is still far from recognition, but it is achievable.




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