What is the Boston Region Vision Zero Action Plan?

Transportation safety is an essential focus of the Boston Region MPO and one of the major goals identified in the MPO’s Long-Range Transportation Plan, Destination 2050. The Vision Zero Action Plan (the ‘Plan’) will address the safety-related needs identified in Destination 2050 and serve as a roadmap for the 97 communities in the region to implement projects that meet the goals of Vision Zero.

The Plan, anticipated to be completed in December 2025, will help identify transportation safety problems through a data-driven and community-based approach. In addition to setting a path for the region to work towards zero deaths and serious injuries on our roads, the Plan will unlock future funding opportunities for communities through the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Grant Program.  

What is Vision Zero?

Vision Zero is an internationally recognized strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways by instituting policies that encourage safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all road users.

Vision Zero asks us to look at mobility and traffic crashes in a fundamentally different way. The traditional approach accepts that a certain number of fatalities and serious injuries will unfortunately occur on our roads – we have to travel; death and serious injury is a potential byproduct. The traditional approach focuses on changing individual behavior to try to prevent these crashes.  

The Vision Zero approach starts with the assumption that traffic deaths and severe injuries on our roads are preventable and takes a systemic approach - focused on infrastructure improvements, policy change, and shared responsibility - to reduce the severity of crashes and to eliminate deaths on our streets. 

While Vision Zero establishes the goal of zero deaths and serious injuries on our streets, the ‘Safe System Approach’ is how we reach that goal. Endorsed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Safe System Approach is based on the acknowledgement that humans are vulnerable and that humans make mistakes. A safe system approach anticipates human mistakes and focuses on designing and managing our transportation system to reduce the severe impacts that happen when a mistake does lead to a crash.

The Safe System Approach identifies five elements of a safe road system – safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post-crash care. These five elements work together to create shared responsibility for the safety of all road users.

Images sourced from: Vision Zero Network and Federal Highway Administration

Five Elements of the Safe System Approach

    • Address all road users, including those who walk, bike, roll, drive, ride transit, use mobility devices, and travel by other modes

    • Acknowledge that humans who use transportation systems are vulnerable and make mistakes

    • Design and regulate vehicles to minimize the occurrence and severity of injury for persons inside and outside the vehicle

    • Incorporate the latest technologies into design to help mitigate serious injuries and fatalities

    • Reduce speeds to reduce impact forces, provide additional time for drivers to stop, and improve visibility

    • Change policy and design street systems to limit speed and encourage safe behavior, which tie into Safe Roads and Safe Road Users

    • Acknowledge that roadway designs used in the past are often not safe and do not prioritize safe access and mobility for all

    • Design to accommodate human mistakes and injury tolerances

    • Physically separate people traveling at different speeds, provide dedicated times for different users to move through a space, and alert users to hazards and other road users

    • Understand the importance of low-cost, low-technology options

    • Design and operate street systems to prevent crashes and minimize crash impacts

    • Create a system where emergency responders can quickly arrive, stabilize injury, and transport to medical facilities

    • Provide resources and support to victims and victim families

    • Conduct forensic analysis at crash site and providing feedback to road designs

    • Provide judicial and media education