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The Vision Zero Handbook

Theory, Technology and Management for a Zero Casualty Policy

  • Living reference work
  • Open Access
  • © 2020

You have full access to this open access Living reference work

Overview

  • Is the major source for everyone working with Vision Zero
  • Brings together all the major topics of the subject in one publication
  • Presents a new road safety paradigm that can be applied to many other areas
  • Introduces a way of thinking about goal setting and implementation that differs from traditional thinking
  • This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access

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About this book

This handbook provides a comprehensive treatment of Vision Zero, an innovative policy on public road safety developed in Sweden. Covering all the major topics of the subject, the book starts out with a thorough examination of the philosophy, ideas and principles behind Vision Zero. It looks at conditions for the effectiveness of the policy, principles of safety and responsibility as well as critique on the policy. Next, the handbook focuses on how the Vision Zero ideas have been received and implemented in various legislations and countries worldwide. It takes into account the way Vision Zero is looked at in the context of international organizations such as the WHO, the UN, and the OECD. This allows for a comparison of systems, models and effects. The third part of the handbook discusses the management and leadership aspects, including ISO standards, equity issues, other goals for traffic and transportation, and opportunities for the car industry. Part four delves into tools, technologies and organizational measures that contribute to the implementation of Vision Zero in road traffic. Examples of specific elements discussed are urban and rural road designs, human factor designs, and avoiding drunk and distracted driving. The final part of the handbook offers perspectives on the transfer of Vision Zero policy to other areas, ranging from air traffic to suicide prevention and nuclear energy.

Vision Zero is a public road safety policy including both a long-term goal that no one shall be killed or seriously injured as a consequence of accidents in road traffic and a safety principle stating that the design and function of the road transport system shall be adapted to meet the requirements that follow from that goal. It is a new road safety paradigm which has resulted in new types of responsibilities among stakeholders, technological innovations, and new strategies and organizational measures to achieve a safe system. The road safety work based on Vision Zero has shown promising results, and although Sweden has not yet reached a safe system, the number of fatalities and severe injuries has decreased substantially.

This is an open access book.

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Reviews

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“From my perspective both as a politician and as private book collector, this is the most important non-fiction book of the 21st Century. It should be disseminated to all European citizens. The learnings of this book and the use we make of them today are crucial for every man, woman and child on earth. Now and in the future.”  (Jens Rohde,member of the European Parliament for the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe)

 

Editors and Affiliations

  • KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Karin Edvardsson Björnberg

  • KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Division of Philosophy, Stockholm, Sweden

    Sven Ove Hansson

  • Swedish Transport Administration, Borlänge, Sweden

    Matts-Åke Belin

  • Chalmers Tekniska Högskola, Göteborg, Sweden

    Claes Tingvall

About the editors

Karin Edvardsson Björnberg is associate professor of environmental philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and History at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm. She has led several research projects on goal-setting in climate adaptation, delay mechanisms in environmental policy, and ethics of biodiversity offsetting. She takes an interest in risk and safety issues and has published articles on EU regulation of genetically modified crops and goal-setting in road traffic safety policy. She currently serves as scientific expert at the Swedish Ethical Review Authority and is vice director of third cycle education at the School of Architecture and the Built Environment (KTH).

Sven Ove Hansson is professor emeritus in philosophy at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm. He is a leading researcher in the philosophy of risk and safety. He is also active

in other areas of philosophy, in particular the philosophy ofscience and technology, decision theory, logic, and moral and political philosophy. He is editor-in-chief of Theoria and of the two book series Outstanding Contributions to Logic and Philosophy, Technology, and Society. He is member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and past president of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. Hansson has published seventeen books and about 390 papers in refereed international journals and books. His books include The Ethics of Risk (2013), The Ethics of Technology. Methods and Approaches (edited, 2017), and Responsibility for Health (forthcoming, 2022).

Matts-Åke Belin is adjunct professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, and he has worked as senior policy advisor at the Swedish Transport Administration where he was responsible for the development of Vision Zero Academy. Since January 2022, Dr. Belin has joined the World Health Organization where he will be leading efforts by WHO tosupport member states and other global actors in the implementation of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.

Claes Tingvall is adjunct professor at the Division of Vehicle Engineering and Autonomous Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, and at the Accident Research Centre, Monash University. He is also a Senior Consultant at the engineering and design company AFRY. Previously, as Director of Traffic Safety at the Swedish Transport Administration, he had a decisive role in the creation of Vision Zero. He continues to have a leading role in international discussions on Vision Zero and traffic safety in general


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Vision Zero Handbook

  • Book Subtitle: Theory, Technology and Management for a Zero Casualty Policy

  • Editors: Karin Edvardsson Björnberg, Sven Ove Hansson, Matts-Åke Belin, Claes Tingvall

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23176-7

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Political Science and International Studies, Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences, Reference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-23176-7Due: 22 January 2023

  • Number of Pages: XX, 1240

  • Number of Illustrations: 34 b/w illustrations, 185 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Public Policy, Health Policy, Operations Research/Decision Theory, Innovation/Technology Management, Social Policy

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