Vision Zero and Safe System - Knowledge base

In this study, we provide insights into how the concepts and frameworks of the Norwegian Vision Zero and the international Safe System approach align or differ from each other. We found significant overlap between the foundation of the Norwegian Vision Zero and the international Safe System approach. The key difference lies in Safe System’s emphasis on the system owner’s "ultimate" responsibility when road users fail to follow the rules due to "lack of knowledge, acceptance, or ability." The Safe System approach elaborates more on practical and strategic road safety work by defining a set of six pillars that describe how road safety efforts should be organized. On the other hand, our literature review shows that even the Safe System approach has a considerable potential for improvement if it is going to work as a guide for practical and strategic road safety work, as it is not always sufficiently clear how the Safe System approach should be operationalized. We therefore provide examples of concrete criteria for Safe System implementation and possible effects of these.