The 2023 DEKRA Vision Zero Award goes to the Swedish city of Karlstad. In the city with a population of just over 60,000, there have been no traffic fatalities in inner-city traffic in eight of the past ten years. DEKRA‘s road safety experts recognize this success with the award. This is the seventh time that the internationally leading expert organization has awarded the prize. Kajsa Sundström Van Zeveren, Head of Region Värmland European Office, accepted the award at the DEKRA Annual Reception in Brussels.
For the interactive world map at www.dekra-vision-zero.com, DEKRA experts continuously evaluate the latest available crash statistics. For a total of 26 countries in Europe, America, Asia and Oceania, the map lists those cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants that have achieved the goal of zero traffic fatalities in at least one year since 2009. Karlstad has about 96,000 inhabitants.
EU Road Safety Coordinator Kristian Schmidt congratulated Karlstad on its success: “It should be an inspiration, an encouragement, and proof to all of us that it can be done. Eight years without fatalities cannot be down to luck – at the end of the day it is about having the right thing.“
“For almost ten years, Karlstad have systematically worked with speed regulation and children’s school routes. Regulated low speed and speed-reducing measures where pedestrians, cyclists, and cars mix to increase safety in the immediate environment where the journey begins. Karlstad has a well-developed network for pedestrians and cyclists with many miles of separated and divided pedestrian and cycling paths”, says Kajsa Sundström Van Zeveren. “We also invest in ‘sweep salting’ to increase the number of cyclists as well as their safety in winter and avoid the most common accident, the single-vehicle accident. Where pedestrians and cyclists cross roads, there is often some measure, and more and more tougher measures such as speed bumps. Even though we have done a lot, there are always requests for more. The challenge ahead is to get road users to follow traffic rules and show consideration for each other”, she adds.
“Nearly 1,300 cities around the world have already achieved the major goal of zero traffic fatalities in at least one year, many of them in multiple years”, said Jann Fehlauer, Executive Vice President of DEKRA Group and Managing Director of DEKRA Automobil GmbH. “These cities – and especially our award winners since 2016 – prove that Vision Zero is achievable.” Efforts to achieve the goal in many more cities and also outside urban areas must continue at all levels, Fehlauer urged.
In Sweden, where Vision Zero – the goal of road traffic without fatalities – was first formulated, there are 27 cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants; 24 of them have already achieved the goal within cities in at least one year since 2009. The only exceptions are the three largest cities, Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. The largest Swedish city that has already achieved the Vision Zero target in single years is Uppsala. The city of 140,000 inhabitants has had a total of seven years with zero traffic fatalities in urban traffic since 2009.