| 1. |
- Abebe, Henok Girma, 1988-, et al.
(author)
-
Equity and Social Justice considerations in road safety work: The case of Vision Zero in New York City
- 2024
-
In: Transport Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0967-070X .- 1879-310X. ; 149, s. 11-20
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper analyses how Vision Zero (VZ) efforts in New York City (NYC) account for equity and social justice implications of road safety work. VZ policy documents, research literature, popular science and opinion articles on road safety work in the city were studied with a prime focus on equity and social justice. Twelve semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in road safety and transport planning in the city and at national level were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of policy design, the adoption process, and the role of equity considerations in the city's road safety work. The results show that major equity and social justice issues arise in the adoption and implementation of VZ. These issues are primarily related to equity and fairness in the distribution of life saving interventions, the socio-economic impacts of road safety strategies, and the nature of community engagement in policy design and implementation. The findings point to a need for VZ practitioners to give due considerations to equity and social justice implications of VZ policies and strategies. Among others, it supports the need for understanding the nature of past equity and social justice problems in road safety and transport planning in the VZ policy design process. Moreover, the findings suggest the need for empirical studies on the socio-economic implications of VZ strategies and interventions.
|
|
| 2. |
- Abebe, Henok Girma, 1988-, et al.
(author)
-
Equity and Social Justice Considerations in Road Safety Work : The Case of Vision Zero in New York City
-
Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This paper analyses how Vision Zero (VZ) efforts in New York City (NYC) account for equity and social justice implications of road safety work. VZ policy documents, research literature, popular science and opinion articles on road safety work in the city were studied with a prime focus on equity and social justice. Twelve semi-structured interviews with stakeholders involved in road safety and transport planning in the city and at national level were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of policy design, the adoption process, and the role of equity considerations in the city’s road safety work. The results show that major equity and social justice issues arise in the adoption and implementation of VZ. These issues are primarily related to equity and fairness in the distribution of life saving interventions, the socio-economic impacts of road safety strategies, and the nature of community engagement in policy design and implementation. The findings point to a need for VZ practitioners to give due consideration to equity and social justice implications of VZ policies and strategies. Among others, it supports the need for understanding the nature of past equity and social justice problems in road safety and transport planning in the VZ policy design process. Moreover, the findings suggest the need for empirical studies on the socio-economic implications of VZ strategies and interventions.
|
|
| 3. |
- Abebe, Henok Girma, 1988-
(author)
-
Ethical Issues in the Adoption and Implementation of Vision Zero Policies in Road Safety
- 2023
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this doctoral thesis is to analyze ethical issues in the adoption and implementation of Vision Zero policies. The first article analyses criticisms against Vision Zero goals and measures promoted to reach them. We identify and assess “moral”, “operational”, and “rationality-based” arguments against Vision Zero. In total, thirteen different criticisms are analyzed. The second article seeks to reconcile the two major decision-making principles in road safety work, i.e., Cost Benefit Analysis and Vision Zero, which are often viewed as incompatible. We argue that the two principles can be compatible if the implementation of Vision Zero accepts temporal compromises intended to promote efficient allocation of resources, and the results of Cost Benefit Analysis are viewed not as optimal and satisfactory as long as fatal and serious injuries continue occurring. The third article uses Vision Zero as a normative framework to explore and analyze road safety work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The ensuing analysis shows that there are significant differences between Addis Ababa road safety policies and Vision Zero in terms of how road safety problems are understood and in their responsibility ascriptions for improving road safety problems. It is argued that enhancing road safety in the city requires promoting a broader view of the causes and remedies of road safety problems. Moreover, given the magnitude and severity of road safety problems in the city, it is vital to emphasize the moral responsibility of actors responsible for the design and operation of the road system, and entities that procure and own large number of vehicles. The fourth article analyses equity and social justice considerations in Vision Zero efforts in New York City (NYC). Moreover, this study seeks to understand and assess how the city accounts for equity and social justice implications of road safety work. The result of the study shows that equity and social justice considerations played important roles in the initial adoption of Vision Zero policy in the city. Nonetheless, the study also shows that the adoption and implementation process gave rise to important equity and social justice issues which are primarily related to the method of prioritization used in road safety work in the city, equity and fairness in the distribution of life saving interventions, the socioeconomic impacts of road safety strategies, and the nature of community engagement in policy design and implementation. The findings of this study, among others, point to a need for Vision Zero practitioners to give due considerations to equity and social justice implications of Vision Zero policies and strategies. The fifth article analyzes the nature and moral acceptability of risk impositions from car driving in a low-income country context. It is shown that car driving involves an unfair and morally problematic risk imposition in which some stakeholders, namely those who decide on the nature of the risk in the road system and benefit the most from car driving, impose a significant risk of harm on others, who neither benefit from the risk imposition nor have decision-making role related to the risks they are exposed to. It is argued that addressing moral problems arising from the unfair risk imposition necessitates the promotion, on the part of beneficiaries and decision makers, of certain types of moral obligations related to the nature and magnitude of road crash risks. Importantly, those who benefit the most from car driving, and actors who decide on the risk level in the road system, have the moral obligation to implement effective risk reducing measures that protect those unfairly risk exposed, obligations to know more about road crash risks, obligations to compensate victims, obligations to communicate with the risk exposed and incorporate their concerns in policy making, and obligations to bring about attitudinal change.
|
|
| 4. |
- Abebe, Henok Girma, 1988-
(author)
-
The Rationality and Moral Acceptability of Vision Zero Goal and Its Interventions
- 2021
-
Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This licentiate thesis discusses moral issues associated with road safety work, with a particular emphasis on the Vision Zero (VZ) goal and its interventions. The licentiate thesis contains three articles and an introduction that briefly discusses issues and arguments presented in the articles.The first article, identifies, systematically categorizes and evaluates arguments against VZ. Moral, operational, and rationality related criticisms against the adoption and implementation of VZ are identified and discussed. The second article in this thesis seeks to reconcile the methods of Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and VZ in road safety decision making. CBA has been and still is a major decision making tool in road transport and traffic safety work. However, proponents of VZ question the use of CBA in road safety and transport decision making on methodological and ethical grounds. In this paper, we locate the philosophical roots of the conflicting views promoted by proponents of CBA and VZ. Then we try to identify ways through which the two methods can be made compatible.The third and final paper uses VZ as a normative framework to explore and analyse the Addis Ababa road safety work. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, the paper seeks to examine how road safety problems are actually understood by those responsible for road safety at the local level. To this end, government policy documents, reports and other relevant sources where consulted to identify how road safety problems are framed, who is assigned responsibility for addressing road safety problems and through what interventions. Second, the paper aims to examine road safety work in the city from a normative point of view, i.e., what is the best, or most adequate, way of framing the problem, and who should be given the responsibility for addressing the problem and by what measures. It is argued that enhancing road safety in the city requires adopting a broader view of causes of road safety problems, and emphasizing the responsibility of actors that shape the design and operation of the traffic system and the safety of its components.
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
- Belin, Matts-Åke, et al.
(author)
-
Nollvisioner – från idé till genomförande : Program för implementeringsforskning inom transportområdet
- 2016
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Med sina färre än 2.6 dödade/100,000 invånare är Sverige världsledande inom vägtrafiksäkerhet. Sverige har, genom riksdagens antagande av Nollvisionen år 1997, tydligt bundit sig för ett ambitiöst och framåtsträvande inriktat trafiksäkerhetsarbete (Trafikanalys 2015). Nollvisionen är inte bara ett långsiktigt mål som innebär att antalet dödade och allvarligt skadade till följd av trafikolyckor på sikt ska elimineras, utan även ett förhållningssätt angående hur trafiksäkerheten ska ökas. Nollvisionen skiljer sig i förhållande till ett mer traditionell trafiksäkerhetsarbete bland annat i sin holistiska systemsyn på trafiksäkerhetsproblemet, där samhället, industrin och akademin i samverkan spelar en väsentlig roll i möjligheten att åstadkomma långsiktigt hållbara förbättringar.
|
|
| 7. |
- Belin, Matts-Åke
(author)
-
Public road safety policy change and its implementation : Vision zero a road safety policy innovation
- 2012
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- It has been estimated that, worldwide, the number of people killed in road traffic crashes each year is almost 1.2 million, while the number of injured could be as high as 50 million. Although road traffic injuries make up a very complex area, comprehensive knowledge of the magnitude of the road safety problem and important risk factors, and also theoretical and practical experiences of effective road safety strategies and measures, have been developed over the years. However, we still lack systematic knowledge about the way governments in different time periods have tried to tackle this major public health problem. Aims: The overall aim of this thesis is to increase knowledge of road traffic safety public policies and their implementation. This is achieved by exploring Vision Zero as a safety policy of this kind. The policy was adopted by the Swedish parliament in October 1997. Methods: The thesis comprises four studies, based on a policy analysis approach, where studies I and II focus on policy, and III and IV on policy implementation. For all four studies, a case study method was utilized, including both single and multiple case studies. For all the studies, documents produced by governmental bodies were utilized as the main source of information, and the contents of these documents were analyzed. For studies I and IV, a policy theory approach was adopted in order to analyze the ideas underpinning Vision Zero as a public policy, and safety cameras as a road safety policy instrument. For studies II and III, an evaluation approach was adopted. Findings: In study I it is shown that Vision Zero is a politically adopted road safety public policy with broad political support. Vision Zero as a road safety policy does not only present a long-term goal, but also represents an innovative and radical approach to the promotion of an alternative framework. According to study II, politically adopted road safety goals, embodied in general and quantified time-bounded targets, are policy strategies that have evolved since the beginning of the 1970s in Sweden. Three adopted road safety targets were identified, and all were specific, measurable, time-bounded, and at least theoretically achievable. However, it seems that the targets adopted in 1996 and 1998 were, compared with the general historical trend, more or less unrealistic. According to study III, Vision Zero exhibits a fundamentally new approach to the allocation of responsibilities for the prevention of traffic injuries. The responsibility for road safety should be shared between road users and system designers, according to the principle that the system designers should always have ultimate responsibility. Thus, Vision Zero as a public policy envisages a chain of responsibility that both begins and ends with the system designers. According to study III, this principle of responsibility has only been minimally implemented in formal legislation. Although the principle of responsibility has not been fully implemented, there is an on-going implementation process through which other less intrusive policy instruments have been pursued. In study IV, it is shown that even though the speed camera system in Victoria, Australia and the Swedish system technically have the same aim – to reduce speeding – ideas on how that should be achieved differ substantially. The Swedish approach to safety cameras appears to be based on the beliefs that road safety is an important priority for road users, and that one of the reasons why road users drive too fast is a lack of information and social support. Accordingly, the underlying aim of the intervention is to support and create a new social norm among drivers, namely that it is easier and better to follow the speed limits. Conclusion: Vision Zero is a politically adopted policy, which is founded in the clear ethical stance that everyone has the right to use roads and streets without threats to life or health. The adoption of difficult or even unrealistic quantified targets may serve as a management tool, and inspire stakeholders to do more than they would otherwise have done. Setting time-bounded quantified targets is, therefore, a policy action in itself, aimed at motivating different stakeholders. The underlying rationale is not directly to achieve the goals and the targets per se, but to increase public awareness of the road safety problem, and thereby impose pressure on stakeholders to strengthen their efforts. Although, according to Vision Zero, system designers have the ultimate responsibility for safety, this principle of responsibility has been only minimally implemented in formal legislation. There are major differences between the ideas underlying the speed camera programs in Victoria, Australia and Sweden, and these ideas have an impact on the actual design of the different systems, and how they are intended to have road safety effects.
|
|
| 8. |
- Belin, Matts-Åke
(author)
-
Shared responsibility for road safety
- 2001
-
In: Traffic Safety on Three Continents : International conference in Moscow, Russia, 19-21 September, 2001. - Linköping : Statens väg- och transportforskningsinstitut. ; , s. 260-265
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The principal task of this study was to examine the responsibility on the part of the public and private sectors for safe road traffic. The Committeeof Inquiry was also to propose new or revised regulations, sanctions and systems of inspection emanating from the outcome of the inquiry. Further, the Committee was to conduct an inquiry in to the establishment of an independent road traffic inspectorate, including recommendations concerning how such a body should be organized, its tasks and powers of authority and how it should be financed.
|
|
| 9. |
- Belin, Matts-Åke, et al.
(author)
-
Speed and technology : Different modus of operandi
- 2023. - 1
-
In: The Vision Zero Handbook. - Cham : Springer. - 9783030765040 - 9783030765057 ; , s. 971-994
-
Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Within Vision Zero as a strategy, it is imbedded the fact that injuries occur when the mechanical energy reaches individuals at rates that entail forces in excess of their thresholds for injury. Therefore, according to Vision Zero, there are three main strategies to eliminate fatalities and severe injuries due to road crashes: protect people from exposure of harmful energy, reduce the risk of events with harmful energy, and protect people from harmful energy in the event of a collision. Controlling speed is therefore of the task of utmost importance in a strategy such as Vision Zero.A traffic enforcement camera, or “speed camera,” system has the possibility to control speed in a road system, and it has the possibility to affect its road users both at a macro and a micro perspective. In a micro perspective, it primarily concerns how effective the cameras are locally at the road sections where the enforcement is focused on, while at a macro perspective it is more focused on how the camera enforcement system and strategies, possibly together with the overall enforcement strategy, affects attitudes and norms related to driving with excessive speed. Experience worldwide has proven the effectiveness of automated speed cameras in reducing speed and, in turn, crashes and injuries.In this chapter, firstly the rationale behind speed limits, speed management, and speed compliance strategies will be explored and analyzed, in particular from a Vision Zero perspective. Secondly, various different approaches to speed camera systems in Europe, in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, and France, will be analyzed and further explored. Finally, based on similarities and differences in approaches in these countries, in the last section some aspects concerning the setting of speed limits, speed management strategies that underpin the choice of camera technology, and modus of operandi, safety effects of and attitudes toward cameras, will be explored and discussed.
|
|
| 10. |
- Belin, Matts-Åke, et al.
(author)
-
Speed Cameras in Sweden and Victoria, Australia : A case study
- 2010
-
In: Accident Analysis and Prevention. - : Elsevier BV. - 0001-4575 .- 1879-2057. ; 42:6, s. 2165-2170
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this article, the ideas behind two different speed camera systems in Australia, Victoria, and Sweden are explored and compared. The study shows that even if the both systems technically have the same aim – to reduce speeding – the ideas of how that should be achieved differ substantially. The approach adopted in Victoria is based on the concept that speeding is a deliberate offence in which a rational individual wants to drive as fast as possible and is prepared to calculate the costs and benefits of his behaviour. Therefore, the underlying aim of the intervention is to increase the perceived cost of committing an offence whilst at the same time decrease the perceived benefits, so that the former outweigh the latter. The Swedish approach, on the other hand, appears to be based on a belief that road safety is an important priority for the road users and one of the reasons to why road users drive too fast is lack of information and social support. In order to evaluate road safety interventions and how their effects are created together with the ambition to transfer technology, there is a need for a comprehensive understanding of the systems and their modi operandi in their specific contexts. This study has shown that there are major differences between the ideas behind the two speed camera programs in Victoria, Australia and Sweden and that these ideas have an impact on the actual design of the different systems and how these are intended to create road safety effects.
|
|
