Vision Zero and ways to work
Vision Zero has had a huge impact on the work to improve road safety. Both the working methods used and the choice of interventions have been improved. Collaboration in networks, governance by objectives and user governance have made things happen.
Historically, traffic safety work has been focused on management by rules. In the work on realising Vision Zero, management by rules still exists, but occupies less space than in the past. New measures and new approaches have been introduced, in which networking and management by objectives are fundamental approaches.
Effective forms of governance
The work to make roads safer to achieve Vision Zero has been primarily characterised by three forms of governance that have shown themselves to be effective and have driven the work forwards:
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Management by objectives and results. In order to create long-term sustainability and a systematic way of working, the Swedish road safety efforts are based on management by objectives. The work includes setting objectives for various indicators judged to have the greatest impact on road safety, for example adherence to the speed limit, safe vehicles and the use of helmets. Changes to the various indicators are measured, monitored and discussed at annual results conferences.
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Network governance. Collaboration between various parties has been and is a key factor in the work towards achieving Vision Zero. This has led to different parties working together in the same direction through coordination and harmonisation.
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User governance. The market's demand is the mechanism that governs development and results. This way of working has had good results in terms of safer cars.
Evidence-based work to improve road safety
Implementing new road safety measures requires fundamental information about the problems that need to be solved. There are two sources of statistics and knowledge about road deaths in Sweden: STRADA and the Swedish Transport Administration's in-depth studies of fatal accidents. You can read more about STRADA and in-depth studies here: Data Collection
Agreement between the Swedish Transport Administration and the police authority on cooperation in road traffic
Since 2016, an agreement has been reached between the Swedish Transport Administration and the Police on cooperation in the field of road safety.
The Swedish Transport Administration and the Police are equal partners in this cooperation and must take into account each other's assignments and priorities as the respective authorities do. The purpose of the agreement is to work together to achieve increased road safety and thereby contribute to a reduced number of dead and seriously injured as well as increased safety in the road traffic environment.
The agreement does not prevent the already established partnerships from continuing or establishing new partnerships, provided that the heads of authorities in the individual cases do not decide otherwise.
Examples of areas of cooperation:
- Joint information efforts
- Speed compliance
- Sober traffic
- In-depth studies of fatal traffic accident
- Occupational traffic
The agreement is signed by the Chief of Police and the Directorate-General of the Swedish Transport Administration and is followed up at annual meetings between them.