ABSTRACT
Safe System is an approach to road safety management that can be advocated as being the current state of the art; it draws comprehensively upon experience of recent decades in road safety management in many countries. Inspired by Vision Zero, the Safe System Sourcebook purports to eliminate death and life-changing injury from use of the roads. This paper questions whether the elimination of death and life changing injuries is at odds with reality. It calls for an adapted vision with realistically ambitious goals: one of zero preventable deaths and life-changing injuries.
Realistic goals are important for road safety in the realm of day-to-day political reality. Emphasis on realistic goals rather than remote prospects should not only help to advance Safe System but also help to align progress towards it with the promotion of active travel and the creation of places for living and walking in our cities.
