Alex Klaushofer has an interesting Critic reminder about Vision Zero.
The empty road to serfdom
“Vision Zero” is a tyrannical anti-driving dream
Those of us who appreciate the ability of vehicles to get us from one place to another will have noticed a strange phenomenon besetting Britain’s roads.
First came the planters, the wooden roadblocks deposited by some of our councils in the hope that closing roads might halt the spread of Covid. The measures were part of central government’s Active Travel programme, which morphed into environment-based road closures enforced by cameras and fines. Since then, the reasons have changed, varying from pollution and congestion to health and safety. But restrictions on driving have continued apace.
Few people know this, but many of these policies are underpinned by a new ideology called Vision Zero. Like Zero Covid, it offers a seductive blend of idealism and virtue, “a fundamentally different way to approach traffic safety” aimed at eliminating the number of serious accidents on the roads. The idea, originating in Sweden and promoted by organisations such as Vision Zero Network, is being embraced by authorities around the UK. Witness Transport for London’s Vision Zero statement: “The Vision Zero approach is based on the fundamental conviction that loss of life and serious injuries are neither acceptable nor inevitable”.
The whole piece is well worth reading, although I suspect many people do know about Vision Zero because it was a minor but interesting news item when adopted by Sweden in 1997. To the surprise of nobody who pays attention to these matters, it has evolved into a miserable bureaucratic dream of complete control over anything to do with travel.
It’s not just local government taking this autocratic approach. Without any public debate, the UK government has signed up to “the Safe System”, a generic term for approaches such as Vision Zero advocated by the World Health Organisation and other supra-national bodies based on the idea that “human beings’ lives and health should never be compromised by their need to travel”.
3 comments:
If they were intellectually consistent they'd campaign against "smart motorways". Do they?
If you are having trouble sleeping, I recommend a visit to the Vision Zero website; a plethora of jargon-ridden Meghan-level word salads interspersed with multi-coloured word clouds (or, as I like to think of them, shit-jumbles).
There’s stiff competition out there but I think you may have uncovered the most meaningless mission statement ever.
dearieme - good point, no they don't campaign against "smart motorways" and Vision Zero suggests they must. Joined-up thinking goes AWOL again.
Macheath - I've had a peep at it, but I have trouble reading the jargon-ridden word salads because as you say, that's what it is. Adults should be ashamed of being associated with it, but they are not.
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