We Know How to Make Vision Zero a Reality

A pattern of consistent, predictable numbers of people killed and seriously injured is not an accident.

It’s a designed tolerance.

Boulder has a far better safety record than its peers in the US, at around 3 people killed per 100,000, compared to the national average and Colorado state average of around 12. That’s the result of deliberate policies and planning.

But the number of deaths isn’t zero. And the rate of life-changing crashes is still far too high and gets far too little attention.

We need to collectively understand that ongoing deaths and serious injuries that persist, at whatever levels if they are chronic, come from system design.

The dangers and solutions on our roads—Boulder’s and others—are not a mystery. They are statistical eventualities that come from how the transportation system is designed.

Indeed, serious crashes are easy to research, and we know from study after study that they result from specific conditions. Some of the key conditions:

• Kinetic energy. Speed and mass drive harm. When speeds fall, survival rises. When vehicles are smaller and streets self-enforce safe speeds, mistakes are less deadly. That means lower default limits that are backed by design, protected space for people walking and biking, safer crossings, better lighting, and safer fleets and vehicle fronts in cities.

• Consequences. People will make mistakes. Streets should forgive human error. Tighter corners, protected intersections, daylighted corners, roundabouts where they fit, and clear, visible crosswalks reduce the chance that a mistake becomes a fatal event.

• Compulsion. Many people have no real choice but to drive for every trip, even short ones, regardless of age, ability, or mental awareness. That raises exposure and stress, especially at odd hours when alternatives are fewer and conditions are even less forgiving. So does planning and policies that lead to higher vehicle miles, which corresponds directly with higher statistical exposure. Frequent and reliable transit, safe routes to school and senior destinations, protected micromobility networks, zoning that lets homes sit near daily needs, and smarter curb management give people real options.

• Citizenship. Policy, culture, and enforcement tend to center drivers and larger vehicles while shifting costs to everyone else. Safe System policies that put human life first, and in turn re-center the perspective and experience of people outside of cars, are fundamental to designing a system that is safer.

These are not guesses. Research shows that these are the dynamics that improve and reduce safety, and that it is very predictable that redesigning our systems with these in mind will lead to reductions in deaths and serious injuries.

Boulder is moving in the right direction.

We need to keep going and making the changes to system design a priority. That is the path—the only real path, and a path that is going to make life better for all of us—to making Vision Zero a reality.