By Nora Hanak The Vision Zero Network was pleased to host a webinar on August 18, 2020 to share an innovative approach to driving-related offenses that seeks to increase awareness and meaningful accountability amongst dangerous drivers, rather than focusing on punishment, fines or fees. This is part of our commitment to support and promote alternatives […]
Talking with Betty Smoot-Madison, Atlanta Department of Transportation, Mobility Director
Betty Smoot-Madison is an urban planner who has worked on community planning and transit-oriented development in the Washington DC suburbs of Prince George’s County, MD, served as the ombudsman for automated enforcement in Baltimore, and is now a director for the Atlanta Department of Transportation. She is leading Atlanta’s work and commitment to Vision Zero […]
Acting for Racial Justice & Just Mobility
The Vision Zero Network expresses our support for and commitment to act on the growing calls to dismantle anti-Black and racist systems in our country, including institutional racism within law enforcement.
New Illustrated Resource Promotes Bike Lanes for All, Vision-Zero Style
One of Vision Zero’s strengths is its inclusivity, focusing on safe mobility for all road users — those walking, bicycling driving, riding transit or motorcycles or scooters, etc. Everyone. Still, we know that people walking are our most vulnerable road users, especially seniors and people with disabilities, so there is much-warranted priority on pedestrian safety […]
Reflections on Advancing Equity in Vision Zero
My Lessons from PolicyLink’s 2018 Equity Summit I was one of 4,000+ people fortunate to have the chance to participate in PolicyLink’s Equity Summit in Chicago in April. I attended as part of a small but engaged Vision Zero delegation that I helped organize to bring together advocates working to integrate equitable approaches and results […]
Elevating Equity in Vision Zero Communications: A New Report
Vision Zero is, at its core, about equity. It is about setting and achieving the morally imperative goal of ensuring that everyone can move about their communities safely.
What’s Next? Lessons From the 2017 Vision Zero Cities Conference
Last month, we were excited to join hundreds of Vision Zero leaders in New York City for the third annual Vision Zero Cities conference, hosted by Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets. It was an especially exciting time for me to attend my first event as a new addition to the Vision Zero Network […]
Centering equity in Vision Zero
At its core, Vision Zero recognizes that all people have the right to move about their communities safely. All people. At its core, Vision Zero is about ensuring equity on our streets, sidewalks, and bikeways. We share this case study and call on city and community leaders to center equity in their Vision Zero work. […]
Top 5 Vision Zero Trends of 2016
2016 was a monumental year for Vision Zero across the United States.
The number of cities committing to Vision Zero more than doubled, and interest in adopting meaningful, action-driven policies for safe streets has spread from a few early-adopter, big, coastal cities to communities large and small across the country. As we roll into 2017 with a challenge that is as big as ever, it’s helpful to look back at the trends — both promising and troubling — that shaped Vision Zero progress in 2016.
Vision Zero, Equity & Law Enforcement
In the wake of appalling violence in Minnesota, Louisiana, and Texas during the past few weeks and swelling racial tensions nationwide, a spotlight is shining on systemic inequities in our nation’s law enforcement system. These tragedies are influencing our thinking across the country. Personally, I am thinking differently about Vision Zero. Not only as it relates to law enforcement, but also in other ways that U.S. communities are interpreting and implementing Vision Zero efforts as they relate to social justice and equity. Admittedly, at this point, I have more questions than answers. I acknowledge that I feel uncomfortable talking about some of these issues, and that I’m far from being an expert in this area. Yet I do feel a responsibility, as the leader of the Vision Zero Network, to share my concerns, including places that I think Vision Zero may have misstepped early in its short history, and to look for solutions.