Vision Zero and Safe Systems: creating safe mobility for all

Vision Zero is an international traffic safety project that aims to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries by improving roadway networks. The Safe System approach is a framework that rethinks transportation safety to anticipate human error and mitigate harm when these mistakes occur.

The most vulnerable road users include pedestrians, cyclists, and e-scooters. Active transportation data provides crucial information to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety, allowing you to create a safe city that puts these users first.

How much are pedestrians and cyclists at risk?

According to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, almost 9000 pedestrians, bicyclists, and other non-motorists were killed in motor vehicle crashes in the US in 2022. This was a 56.5 percent jump in fatalities compared to 2013.

Factors challenging bicycle and pedestrian safety include:

- Absence of suitable infrastructure (e.g. Bike lanes)
- Conflicts of use between multiple user types (E.g. Cars, bikes, e-scooters)
- Lack of visibility or speed regulation on roads

With reliable data on non-motorized road users, you can learn where improvements are needed and how safety has improved over time. These two insights are foundational for building a safe city.

To enhance bicycle and pedestrian safety, the first step is to capture traffic volumes on a reliable, consistent basis. This way, you can observe how traffic evolves, month after month and year after year.

From there, you can learn important information about your network. For example, are some facilities more popular than others? If so, which ones? Are more people walking and cycling than expected? How fast are these practices growing? This "big picture" of your traffic numbers lets you compare with other key figures like total collisions to improve overall safety in a strategic, data-justified way.

A solid database can give you greater insights about your network. For example, counting active transportation users can tell you which roads are busiest. But, if you look a little deeper, you can identify routes where traffic is lower than expected, a sign that a facility is perceived as unsafe.

Additionally, you can cross-reference count data and GPS data with tools like Cycling Insights. These solutions provide valuable figures such as sudden braking rates, a clear indicator of danger levels at an intersection.

At key intersections, using a counting solution means that you can be confident your data represents the ground truth (in other words, what's truly happening). With tools like the CITIX-AI ^Evo camera-based solution, you can collect easily interpretable, granular data over a large area on multiple user types at once.

From there, you can look at elements like trajectories, speeds, and conflicts of use to measure real-time safety. You can even measure exposure to risk with AI features like counting "near-misses."

Case study: Vancouver

In 2021, we conducted a road safety study for the City of Vancouver, Canada using an innovative method of cross-referencing data sources. The main question they wanted answered: Was their city a safe city for cyclists?

To answer this question, Accident and bicycle count data from 2010 to 2020 were cross-referenced to identify periods and locations of greater risk in their network.

The study revealed that the risk of collision was highest in late autumn and early winter, with dangerous intersections on major arterial roads without protected bike lanes. The data also showed that the most dangerous locations in absolute terms (total # of accidents recorded) were very different from the most dangerous locations by ratio (# of accidents recorded/frequency of use). The most accident-prone intersections were found on the city's outskirts.

Are pedestrians safe on my roads?

In the US, over 7300 pedestrians were killed by vehicles in 2023. This meant that one pedestrian died every 72 minutes. This number was 5.4% less than in 2022 but still represented a 50% increase in yearly fatalities compared to a decade ago.

Across the board, pedestrian safety in the US could undoubtedly be improved. Luckily, when it comes to your sidewalks, crosswalks, and other pedestrian infrastructures, there are clear steps to take to determine how safe they are and what to do to make them safer.

It is hard to confirm how safe your roads are without understanding how people use them first. This is why collecting mobility data is an excellent first step. From there, you can see hotspots, conflicts of use, speeds, and other information to judge whether or not pedestrians are safe on your roads.

Is cycling becoming increasingly dangerous?

Based on the most recent data available from the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center, over 1100 cyclist fatalities occurred in 2022. This represents a 30% increase compared to 2019. At the same time, cycling volumes in the US are growing at a rate of just over 1%, which may suggest that cycling is becoming an increasingly dangerous hobby.

That said, there has been a general movement in recent years towards more bike-friendly cities and infrastructure. As these projects come to fruition, bicycle safety in the US is likely to see improvements.

How do I improve road safety for pedestrians and cyclists?

Improving road safety for pedestrians and cyclists means tackling the root causes that create risk for these vulnerable road users.

These causes could include:

- Missing infrastructure where needed (e.g. bike lanes, multi-use pathways, etc.)
- Having sidewalks or bike lanes that are incorrectly sized (E.g. Not wide or curved enough)
- Lack of speed regulation
- Insufficient lighting or signage

To begin addressing these issues, you first need data. You need to answer questions like:

- Which facilities are people using most?
- What times are people using your facilities?
- What are the different user types for each facility?
- How fast are users going, and where are the high-risk areas?

Why track count data over time?

It is important to collect data in the field on an ongoing basis to obtain a reliable database that can be analyzed month by month, year by year.

This database gives you long-term trends, which let you perform analyses such as:

- Monitoring the effectiveness of safety improvements to your infrastructure
- Justifying the need for investment in new infrastructure to decision-makers and the general public
- Cross-referencing with other data like crash data to determine areas and intersections of high-risk

Vision Zero and Safe Systems: creating safe mobility for all

How much are pedestrians and cyclists at risk?

How do I make cycling and walking safer in my city?

Measure long-term trends

Gain deeper knowledge of your network

Study key intersections at the ground level

Case study: Vancouver

How Eco-Counter can help

Expertise

Support

Tools

Frequently asked questions

Are pedestrians safe on my roads?

Is cycling becoming increasingly dangerous?

How do I improve road safety for pedestrians and cyclists?

Why track count data over time?

Going further

Modal share
& space allocation

Communication

Weather Impacts

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Vision Zero and Safe Systems: creating safe mobility for all

How much are pedestrians and cyclists at risk?

How do I make cycling and walking safer in my city?

Measure long-term trends

Gain deeper knowledge of your network

Study key intersections at the ground level

Case study: Vancouver

How Eco-Counter can help

Expertise

Support

Tools

Frequently asked questions

Are pedestrians safe on my roads?

Is cycling becoming increasingly dangerous?

How do I improve road safety for pedestrians and cyclists?

Why track count data over time?

Going further

Modal share & space allocation

Communication

Weather Impacts

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay connected!

Modal share
& space allocation