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.

The introduction of self-driving vehicles gives rise to a large number of ethical issues that go beyond the common, extremely narrow, focus on improbable dilemma-like scenarios. This article provides a broad overview of realistic ethical issues related to self-driving vehicles. Some of the major topics covered are as follows: Strong opinions for and against driverless cars may give rise to severe social and political conflicts. A low tolerance for accidents caused by driverless vehicles may delay the introduction of driverless systems that would substantially reduce the risks. Trade-offs will arise between safety and other requirement on the road traffic system. Over-reliance on the swift collision-avoiding reactions of self-driving vehicles can induce people to take dangerous actions, such as stepping out in front of a car, relying on its fast braking. Children travelling alone can violate safety instructions such as the use of seatbelts. Digital information about routes and destinations can be used to convey commercial and political messages to car users. If fast passage can be bought, then socio-economic segregation of road traffic may result. Terrorists and other criminals can hack into a vehicle and make it crash. They can also use self-driving vehicles for instance to carry bombs to their designed places of detonation or to wreak havoc on a country’s road system. 

Road traffic injuries are a global public health problem, which is recognized as one of the many important sustainable challenges in the United Nation's 2030 agenda. Sweden has one of the safest road transport systems in the world and this is a result of an ongoing development of the Swedish society and its safety culture. In October 1997, Sweden reached an important milestone when the Swedish Parliament adopted Vision Zero as their new long-term goal and strategy for road safety. It is now more than 20 years since the Swedish national adoption of the Vision Zero and this approach to safety has since spread around the world and to other sectors of the society. In this paper, the Swedish Vision Zero and its basic characteristics, implementation, and results are described and discussed.

The Vision Zero policy was adopted by the Swedish parliament in 1997 as a new direction for road traffic safety. The aim of the policy is that no one should be killed or seriously injured due to traffic accidents and that the design of the road transport system should be adapted to those requirements. Vision Zero has been described as a policy innovation with a focus on the tolerance of the human body to kinetic energy and that the responsibility for road safety falls on the system designers. In Sweden, the Vision Zero terminology has spread to other safety-related areas, such as fire safety, patient safety, workplace safety and suicide. The purpose of this article is to analyze, through a comparative content analysis, each Vision Zero policy by identifying the policy decision, policy problem, policy goal, and policy measures. How a policy is designed and formulated has a direct effect on implementation and outcome. The similarities and differences between the policies give an indication of the transfer method in each case. The results show that the Vision Zero policies following the Vision Zero for road traffic contain more than merely a similar terminology, but also that the ideas incorporated in Vision Zero are not grounded within each policy area as one would expect. The study shows that it is easier to imitate formulations in a seemingly successful policy and harder to transform Vision Zero into a workable tool in each policy area. 

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.