Traditionally, traffic safety campaigns have focused on the efforts of individual stakeholders.

For example, a police department will conduct speed enforcement in a corridor with a known high rate of speeding violations or a street project will add bicycle lanes to a redesigned street. While these efforts do improve safety for roadway users, they are typically done independently from each other. Adherents to Vision Zero, on the other hand, will use a data-driven approach that attempts to redesign a street to prevent speeding and accommodate bicyclists or other micromobility users.

Another example of how Vision Zero encourages this paradigm shift relates to community outreach. Traditionally, vulnerable community groups identify with a community organization for support, but those groups aren’t consulted when important transportation safety decisions are made, despite the fact that historically, they are the most negatively affected by traffic-related injuries or deaths. A Vision Zero initiative identifies these vulnerable communities up front and engages with them from the beginning to ensure that they are an important part of the decision-making process at the most impactful stages. 

A final example that helps explain Vision Zero’s unorthodox approach focuses on vehicle sizes. Typically, City departments, such as the Environmental Services and Fire Departments will purchase large vehicles based solely on utilitarian need. Under the principles of Vision Zero, department directors are challenged to think about how these vehicles impact cities’ abilities to make street safety improvements, such as narrowing a travel lane to discourage speeding or install a bicycle lane. As a result of this shift in thinking, these departments find ways to incorporate smaller vehicles that help achieve their same utilitarian goals while also achieving the larger Vision Zero goal.