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. 2020 Feb 28;23(2):113–121. doi: 10.1016/j.cjtee.2020.02.005

Table 2.

Comparison of traditional, systematic, and vision zero approaches on road safety based on the scoping review.

Items Approach
Traditional Systematic Vision zero
Philosophy
  • -

    Accidents are unavoidable

  • -

    Mobility all the times contains a certain percentage of personal injuries.
  • -

    People make mistakes and they are physically fragile/vulnerable in RTIs.

  • -

    Varying quality and design of infrastructure and operating speeds provides inconsistent guidance to users about what is safe use behavior.
  • -

    No one will be killed or serious injured in the road transport system.

  • -

    People make errors, mistakes and misjudgments.

  • -

    There are biomechanical tolerance limits.

  • -

    The chain of events can be cut at many places.
Ethical imperative Not clear. Ethical aspects are often ignored. It is never ethically acceptable that people to be killed or be injured seriously in the road transport system.
Direction Bottom-up approach Up-down approach Up-down approach
Problem Try to prevent all RTCs Prevent crashes from resulting in fatal and serious casualties Prevent crashes from resulting in fatal and serious casualties
Appropriate goal Prevent road accident Reduce fatalities and serious injuries Eliminate/zero fatalities and serious injuries
Planning approaches
  • -

    Reactive to incidents

  • -

    Incremental approach to reduce the problem
  • -

    Proactively target and treat risk

  • -

    Systematic approach to build a safe road system
  • -

    Proactive planning

  • -

    Systematic approach to build a safe road system

  • -

    Strategic planning

  • -

    Operative planning

  • -

    Tactical planning
Causes of the problem
  • -

    Human errors

  • -

    Non-compliant road users
  • -

    System gaps

  • -

    Failures in the system design is the cause of RTIs

 The system design as the main cause and system designers as responsible. (Road user, designers, administrators, etc.)
Focus on human characteristics Excessive mechanical forces on humans
  • -

    Human body tolerance to high energy

  • -

    Kinetic energy

  • -

    Reduce mechanical forces to human tolerances
  • -

    Human body tolerance to high energy

  • -

    People are blind to kinetic energy

  • -

    Reduce mechanical forces to human tolerances
Ultimately responsible Individual road users It places a shared responsibility across all elements of the system. Shared responsibility amongst everyone, including those that design, build, operate and use the road system.
System method of work Is composed of isolated interventions Different elements of a safe system combine to produce a summary effect greater than the sum of the individual treatments-so that if one part of the system fails others parts provide protection. People will sometimes make mistakes, so the road system and related policies should be designed to ensure those inevitable mistakes do not result in serious injuries or fatalities.
Cost of saving lives Expensive Cheap Cheap

RTIs: road traffic injuries.