www.vtpi.org [email protected] 250-508-5150 Todd Alexander Litman © 2017-2023 You are welcome and encouraged to copy, distribute, share and excerpt this document and its ideas, provided the author is given attribution. Please send your corrections, comments and suggestions for improvement. A New Traffic Safety Paradigm 30 June 2023 Todd Litman Victoria Transport Policy Institute A new traffic safety paradigm recognizes exposure, total vehicle travel, as a risk factor, and therefore the safety benefits of vehicle travel reduction strategies such as multi-modal planning, more efficient transport pricing, Smart Growth development policies and Transportation Demand Management (TDM) programs. Abstract Despite large investments in traffic safety programs and technologies vehicle crashes continue to impose high social costs and recently increased. New strategies are needed to achieve ambitious safety targets such as Vision Zero. Recent research improves our understanding of factors that affect crash risks and identifies new safety strategies. Applying this knowledge requires a paradigm shift, a change in the way problems are defined and solutions evaluated. The old paradigm assumed that driving is generally safe, and so favored safety programs that target special risks such as youth, senior, impaired and distracted driving. The new paradigm recognizes that all vehicle travel carries risk, so exposure (total vehicle travel) is a risk factor, and vehicle travel reduction strategies provide safety benefits. This report examines our emerging understanding of traffic risks and new safety strategies, and the importance of more comprehensive safety analysis. Summarized in Todd Litman (2022), “Driving as a Risk Factor: A New Paradigm for Vision Zero,” Vision Zero Cities Journal; at https://medium.com/vision-zero-cities-journal/driving-as-a-risk-factor. Todd Litman (2019), “Toward More Comprehensive Evaluation of Traffic Risks and Safety Strategies” Research in Transportation Business & Management (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2019.01.003). Todd Litman (2018), “A New Traffic Safety Paradigm,” Transportation Talk (Journal of the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers), Winter, pp. 12-18; at https://bit.ly/2Febrwx.
A New Traffic Safety Paradigm
Jul 04, 2023
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