Safe Streets for All: Vision Zero in Urban Areas

This session focuses on how cities reduce road fatalities and serious injuries by applying the Safe System approach through street design, speed management and governance. Proposals should prioritise low tech and high impact interventions, such as citywide speed reductions, self-explaining streets, protected crossings and junction treatments, safe routes to schools, and reallocation of space to reduce exposure and conflict. Contributions should describe political and institutional strategies that enable action, including interdepartmental coordination, enforcement partnerships, community involvement and systematic safety auditing, rather than relying on vehicle technology narratives.  Data is welcome as an evidence tool, for example crash analysis, near miss mapping and risk prioritisation, but the core session is about designing and governing safer streets. Proposers could also address issues related to equity, including which neighbourhoods receive safety investment, how to reduce disproportionate risk for children and older people, and how safety improvements strengthen walkability, cycling uptake and public space quality. 

The session seeks to identify transferable lessons, including which measures deliver the largest safety gains, how to manage public acceptance, how to embed safety targets into SUMPs, and monitoring processes consistent with EU Vision Zero ambitions.