Road to Zero: A Plan to Eliminate Roadway Deaths

In the short term, the report stresses enforcing and strengthening current traffic safety laws, providing new resources for traffic safety researchers and practitioners, and supporting those who design and build roads and vehicles.

While widespread use of fully automated vehicles is still decades away, the Coalition proposes accelerating the benefits of new technologies by creating partnerships between public safety and health groups, and industry professionals.

The report encourages fostering a safety culture and adopting a Safe Systems approach. Many businesses have improved fatality and injury rates by adopting a safety culture, and a number of cities have adopted a Vision Zero strategy incorporating the Safe Systems approach that accommodates human error. But to be fully effective, these ideas need to spread across the country.

“The safe systems approach has saved lives in other countries. Sweden reduced the number of traffic deaths by more than half since the approach was introduced,” said Liisa Ecola, a senior policy analyst at RAND and lead author of the report. “This shows that we in the U.S. can make large strides in traffic safety with existing technologies and policies.”

The Road to Zero Steering Group has been integral to the creation of this report. The Road to Zero Coalition also supports innovative strategies through the Safe System Innovation grants. Funding was provided in 2017 and 2018.

Coalition membership is continuously growing. If your organization is interested in joining the Road to Zero initiative, please fill out this membership form.