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What is Vision Zero?

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Vision Zero: A Commitment to Safe Streets and includes images of people walking, biking, scooting and using a wheelchair on roads.

You’ve probably heard a lot about Vision Zero and you’re wondering what is it? Municipalities across New Jersey and the United States are committing to Vision Zero through resolutions, ordinances aimed at increasing road safety, and street redesigns that accommodate all people, regardless of how they get around.

What is Vision Zero? A Bold Strategy for Road Safety

In the world of transportation and road safety, Vision Zero has emerged as a groundbreaking approach aimed at eliminating traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries. While the idea might seem idealistic at first, it’s grounded in the belief that no loss of life or serious injury on the roads is acceptable. By shifting the focus to proactive safety measures, Vision Zero aims to create a road system that protects all users, including drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

Origins of Vision Zero

Vision Zero was first introduced in Sweden in 1997. The country, known for its strong commitment to social welfare and public safety, set out with the goal of creating a transportation system where nobody would be killed or seriously injured in road accidents. Since its inception, Sweden has seen significant success, with traffic fatalities dropping by over half in the years that followed the implementation of Vision Zero.

Seeing these positive results, the idea began to spread globally. Today, cities and countries around the world have adopted Vision Zero as part of their road safety strategies, including major urban centers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and beyond. But Vision Zero isn’t just a set of guidelines—it’s a call to action and a comprehensive approach to how we think about traffic safety.

Key Principles of Vision Zero

  • Human-Centered Design: One of the core tenets of Vision Zero is the recognition that humans make mistakes. Road design should accommodate human error, making it difficult for accidents to result in serious injuries or deaths. For example, roundabouts or protected bike lanes can reduce the likelihood of fatal collisions.
  • Systemic Safety: Vision Zero doesn’t just focus on individual behavior but emphasizes improving the entire transportation system. This includes engineering safer roadways, introducing more robust vehicle safety standards, and enhancing traffic laws. The goal is to redesign roads and infrastructure to prevent severe accidents from occurring, regardless of human error.
  • Shared Responsibility: Unlike traditional road safety approaches, which often place the blame for accidents on drivers, Vision Zero emphasizes that responsibility is shared by everyone involved—drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, policymakers, and engineers. It’s not about blaming individuals but creating a safer system for all.
  • Data-Driven Solutions: Effective policies and infrastructure changes must be informed by solid data. Vision Zero calls for detailed data collection on traffic accidents, injury patterns, and the behavior of road users to determine where improvements are needed. This allows for targeted solutions and better resource allocation.

Vision Zero in Practice

While Vision Zero might sound like an ambitious ideal, there are numerous real-world examples showing its effectiveness. Cities around the world have already begun to implement Vision Zero strategies with significant success.

  • Hoboken, NJ: Since committing to Vision Zero in 2018, Hoboken has not seen a traffic fatality in seven years, thanks to safety improvements that include daylighting intersections – the process of increasing visibility at crosswalks, incorporating bike lanes, and reducing speed limits throughout the city.
  • Jersey City, NJ: Jersey City became the first city in New Jersey to commit to Vision Zero through initiatives like pop-up pedestrian plazas, installing roundabouts, reducing speed limits, and daylighting intersections.
  • New York City: In 2014, NYC adopted Vision Zero as part of its official traffic safety strategy. The city implemented measures like lower speed limits, the expansion of bike lanes, and increased enforcement of traffic laws.

As more cities adopt Vision Zero principles, it’s becoming clear that road safety is not just about enforcement but about rethinking the very nature of how we design and interact with our road systems. The initiative has the potential to transform cities into safer, more inclusive environments where everyone—from children to the elderly—can move around confidently without the constant threat of road crashes.

Vision Zero is A Shared Goal

Achieving zero traffic deaths and serious injuries requires continued collaboration among government agencies, engineers, public health professionals, and the public. Everyone must play a role in ensuring that Vision Zero is more than just a lofty goal but a tangible, life-saving reality.

Vision Zero is more than just a traffic safety program; it is a philosophy that redefines how we view road safety. It challenges the notion that traffic deaths are inevitable and calls for systemic changes to create a safer world for all road users. The journey toward zero is long, but it’s a step toward a future where no one has to fear for their life on the road.

Learn more about Vision Zero, download a sample resolution, and take the Vision Zero Pledge HERE.

Safety Tips for Back to School

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bigstock-Watch-Out-For-Children-427446As children across Middlesex County head #backtoschool this week, they will again be sharing the roads with school buses, other young pedestrians, and bicyclists.  Whether your children walk, ride their bike, or take the bus, help ensure they take the proper safety precautions​.

Children who walk to school:  When walking, stay on the sidewalk if one is available. If the street does not have a sidewalk, walk facing the traffic so as to have a clear view of the traffic.  When crossing a street,  look left, right and left again to see if any cars, buses, or bicyclists are coming.  If possible, make a point to set time aside to practice walking their route to school.  Together you can use pedestrians signals, ensure they are crossing streets correctly, and get a good idea of the path they are taking.

Children who bike to school: When riding a bike to and from school, children should always wear a proper fitted helmet and sneakers at all times. The same procedures apply when crossing the street.  Riders must come to complete stop, look left, right and left again, and always walk their bike across the street. Parents should practice and teach children the rules of the road to help insure they get to school safe and sound.

Children who ride the bus to school: Rain or shine, the big yellow bus gets the children to school. To ensure a safe ride to school, make sure children stand six feet away from the curb when a bus is pulling up or driving away. Remind children to fasten their seat belts and to remain seated throughout the ride.  While it’s exciting to chat with friends, children should keep  screaming and jumping for the playground and home so that the driver can focus on the road.

Regardless of how children make their way to school, we wish everyone a safe and enjoyable school year!

The Emerald Isle – Changes In Latitude

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Polite and friendly people. Warm and delicious brown bread.  Green for more than the eye can see.  Guinness on tap everywhere and anywhere you go.

Where are we?

Ireland, of course – the Emerald Isle.

As the plane descended from the clouds, the morning was bright and beautiful.  And at the expense of sounding cliché, outside our window the greenest fields and lush rolling hills greeted us.

ireland2This was my first trip oversees in many years and the first in which I was leaving my children behind in the care of my parents.  Trying to suppress my anxiety of leaving them, I vowed to make the most of my time in the beautiful city of Dublin.

And what a city it is!

During our week stay, we visited the “must see” sites Dublin primarily by foot and bus……

…St. Patrick’s Cathedral (which unlike the cathedral in New York City is Anglican).

ireland…Trinity College and the splendor of its breath-taking library.

..the Guinness Factory and the tour up to the Sky Bar for a free pint of Guinness – there is a full meal in every pour!ireland3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But of all the tourist sites we visited, by far my favorite was taking the Literary Pub Crawl.  What is better than being immersed in Irish literary history while enjoying a pint at each stop along the tour.  On the night of our walking tour, a light rain fell and we met Yeats, O’Casey, Joyce and Swift along the way on this tour.

And like all good trips, the night before we left, our tour bus made its way up the winding hills and delivered us at the door step of The Merry Ploughboys Pub where we dined, danced and sang as if we were just another fellow family member.

 

 

Feisty Granny Gives Impatient Driver His Comeuppance

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I am sure by now, you have seen the latest viral video, but let me share with you – my Mother would have loved the lady in this video!

Just case you haven’t seen the video….

“Good for her,” Mom would have said, adding, “old age ain’t for sissies, you know.”

MH900409517Of course, she stole that line from the late radio and television personality Art Linkletter.  But, he probably borrowed from Bette Davis or H.L. Mencken.  Whoever said it, was right.

Mom was active and sassy.  In her late 70s, she belonged to a community group, the Singing Seniors.  They would go to “the home” and entertain the “old people.”  She drove a mean scooter in the local grocery store.  But, even Mom had to slow down when she faced hip replacement surgery.

Just before the surgery, she and I were at an intersection in our town.  The light changed; the “Walk” signal appeared.  We started crossing the street very slowly.  The light counted down and we were still in the middle of the intersection.  Suddenly, we heard a loud, obnoxious, and prolonged car horn.  You know the sound –Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

Mom froze in the middle of the intersection!  Froze!  A car horn will do that to a person.  After a moment, Mom commenced her sojourn across the street.   I walked over to the offensive driver.

In a huff, the driver asked, “What’s the hold up?”

“My Mom’s crossing the street.  She needs a little more time.”

“Oh,” replied the driver sheepishly.

Aging is rough enough without having a young, impatient whippersnapper, like the one my Mother encountered or the one in this video, honk as you try to cross the street.

What was the driver thinking?  Did he think about his own Mom or Grammy?  Did he wonder if the pedestrian was impeded by a medical problem – arthritis, a bad leg or hip?  Did it occur to him that the aging process just slowed her down?  Did his brain process that the horn may have startled her and caused her to fall?

I don’t think he thought about anything but his precious time.  He had places to go after all.  And now, he had to wait for this old lady to cross the street.  I can hear him sigh deeply “Life is so unfair.”

Like many of us, he didn’t relate to the challenges of aging or old age.  We all need a little patience, a little understanding, and a little sympathy because one day we may be crossing the street.

My Mom also used to say, “It’s no fun getting old.”

In reply, I would ask, “Mom, what’s the alternative?”

~RAK